Bring PM under Lok Pal Bill: CPI

New Delhi
9 August 2007

The CPI has said that it will oppose the Bill for unorganised labour if it
is introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament. The party also made known its
opposition to the micro finance Bill. It sought the immediate introduction of the Bill for 33
per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the Lok Pal Bill, which should bring the
Prime Minister under its purview too. The party also sought action on the Srikrishna
Commission Report on the 1993 Mumbai riots and a discussion on the Sacha Committee
Report.

Leader of CPI Parliamentary Party Gurudas Dasgupta on Thursday said: "Any Bill
injurious to the common people shall be opposed even through voting." He complained
that the government has several hundreds of crore of rupees to give to the exporters, to
help them tide over the reducing exchange value of the Rupee, but no money for the
unorganised labour. He said that a Bill on unorganised labour without provision of
statutory allocation is a hoax and the CPI will oppose the Bill if its introduced in
Parliament.

Mr Dasgupta said: "The CPI makes it clear that it shall oppose the proposed Central
legislation for the unorganised labour in its present form. It is nothing but a hoax. While
the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) had clearly stated one Bill for the
unorganised labour and another for the agricultural labour, the government has prepared
only a single legislation for the whole unorganised labour of the country." He feared that
the microfinance Bill, in turn, will legitimise the "money-lender system".

He said that the NCMP had become "an obsolete piece of paper" and the government
was not doing its duty to the people. The government, he said, should explain why all its
measures to hold the price line have failed. Training his guns on Union Minister of
Finance P Chidambaram, he said that the minister makes "pedantic speeches" but he
has not been able to arrest the galloping prices of essential commodities. "The minister
is cooking up statistics ... it is an illegitimate act," he said.

The CPI asked the government to review its policy on special economic zone. It said that
the public distribution system has collapsed and also reiterated its opposition to foreign
direct investment in retail.

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