Date:02/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/02/stories/2007010203911200.htm

National

Poll tactics figure at CPI (M) meet

Marcus Dam

Central committee meets today

Land acquisition, SEZ issues also discussed

Crisis in Kerala unit denied

KOLKATA: Tactics to be adopted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for the coming Assembly elections in some States, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, were discussed at a meeting of the party's Polit Bureau here on Monday.

The current political situation was also reviewed, as were organisational matters concerning the party. These issues are expected to be discussed in greater detail in the course of the three-day meeting of the CPI (M) central committee which begins here on Tuesday.

"There is no crisis", Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury, said prior to the meeting when asked by media persons whether there was a crisis brewing within the party's Kerala unit following reported differences within the local leadership on the question of Asian Development Bank loan terms for the State.

Also reported to have come up in the Polit Bureau deliberations was the issue of acquisition of land for industry, special economic zones and infrastructure.

The Polit Bureau met a day after the party's State Committee decided to launch an extensive two-month long campaign across West Bengal beginning in January, focusing on the need for hastening industrialisation, creating employment opportunities and increasing agricultural productivity. It will also aim at answering the misinformation being spread in certain quarters of the party's and the State Government's plans for overall economic development of the State.

The campaign is being launched at a time when the proposed car manufacturing project to be set up at Singur in the State's Hooghly district has raised questions among certain Opposition parties over the land acquisition process and the compensation provided to those affected.

The party's highest policy-making body has endorsed the State's Government's polices on land acquisition for industry. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who has been underlining the need for balancing greater industrialisation moves with ensuring food security, informed the party's State Committee of the initiatives taken by his government in this regard.

The State's Industries Minister, Nirupam Sen, also spoke of plans for the rehabilitation and compensation packages for those whose plots might need to be acquired for the upcoming projects in the State.