Report

The CPIML City committee held a protest demonstration on March 7 at Bhubaneshwar against the LPG price hike.

The All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM) organised an indefinite dharna in protest of non-payment of sugarcane farmers dues in Baheri of Uttar Pradesh. The Kesar Sugar Mill owes sugarcane dues of farmers, remaining unpaid in spite of repeated requests, was opposed and an indefinite sit-in protest was started from 13 February.

- CPIML GS 

Addressing a seminar organised in the Jagjivan Ram Institute of Parliamentary Studies & Political Research in Patna on February 26, CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya noted that the country is going through a difficult time and various forces of social change have to unite. The seminar 'Challenges of Social Change in Bihar' was part of the Jagjivan Ram Smriti Lecture Series.

Dozens of CPIML activists were taken into custody in Behali of Biswanath district of Assam on 28 February for holding a protest, after duly informing the adminsitration, against a so called encounter of Dembeswar Musahary.

On the third day of the 11th CPIML Party Congress, a ‘Save Constitution, Save Democracy, Save India’ convention was organised, where the Mahagathbandhan leaders, including Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, JD(U) president Lalan Singh, and senior leader of Indian National Congress and former cabinet minister Salman Khurshid and Member of Parliament and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panthers Party, Tamil Nadu) Thol. Thirumavalavan attended the convention.

CPIML held a demonstration in Siwan on 24 January demanding action against the local police incharge for allegedly conniving with the illicit liquor smugglers. Six people have died in another illicit liquor incident after Saran in Naviganj block and another half a dozen are struggling for life in hospital.

The Safai Mazdoor Ekta Manch held its conference in Allahabad on 29 January. They demanded a monthly minimum wage of Rs. 26000. Uttar Pradesh AICCTU leader Vijay Vidrohi addressed this conference as the main speaker. He said that sanitation workers in Karnataka have fought a long and successful battle for permanent jobs. We must also strengthen our unity to oust the regime of private contractors and out-sourcing.

Even school girls were not spared by CM Yogi’s police in UP’s Banaras for taking out a procession in memory of Savitribai Phule with slogans of education and equality for women. They were holding a Siksha Adhikar Rally (right to education rally) on 16 January but the police in Banaras stopped them on the way in the name of section 144. This section of criminal law implies maintenance of law and order which police feared could be in danger due to those girls. They wanted to go up to the statue of Dr. Ambedkar.

Thousands of small farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri are fighting a valiant struggle to save their lands from acquisition by the forest department. They have lived here since a long time and had even been paying taxes to the local kings and zamindars long before the independence. After so many decades now the forest department is ‘reclaiming’ those lands because these farmers' lands have not been recorded by the revenue department which is a criminal neglect and inhuman act.