Date:08/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/08/stories/2008020857820100.htm

Front Page

Left wants relief to ryots

Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Concerned over the agrarian crisis, the four Left parties on Thursday demanded that the Union budget for 2008-09 constitute a Farmers Debt Relief Commission. They wanted such a panel to write off the debts for small and marginal farmers and bring down the interest on farm loans to a simple rate of four per cent.

The Left parties also demanded more allocations for education, health and other crucial social sectors. “There are certain real, urgent problems facing the people and the government must address them in the 2008-09 budget,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here.

Mr. Karat, along with CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, CPI national secretary and member of Parliament D.Raja, Forward Bloc general secretary and MP Debabrata Biswas and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy, released the Left proposals for the budget.

The Left parties have been submitting their budget proposals to the government for the past four years.

Mr. Karat said some of the key commitments made in the National Common Minimum Programme had not been adequately implemented.

He said the budget should tackle the persisting problems being faced by the people – the agrarian crisis, unemployment and price rise.

“Rather than being obsessed with the growth rate, the budget should concentrate on redistributing the benefits of growth to all sections of the people, particularly the socio-economically weaker sections,” Mr. Karat said, giving details of the Left budget proposals.

Social security

The parties demanded necessary resources for a comprehensive social security scheme for workers in the unorganised sector, extension of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Scheme to all districts of the country, implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report, increased allocation for urban housing schemes for weaker sections, and reduction of the lending rate of banks and financial institutions.