CPI(M) to oppose decision to extend medical course

Kanniyakumari, Dec 15 (UNI) Communist Party of India(Marxist) Tamil Nadu Unit Secretary N Varadarajan today said the party would oppose the state Government's decision to extend the duration of the medical course from five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half years.

Talking to newspersons here, he said the CPI(M) however, would not oppose the government's decision to send the students for training in villages and remote areas. The students should be sent for training as medical practitioners and the government should pay them Rs 15,000 per month as salary he added.

Mr Varadarajan said shortage of electricity was causing concern for the last six-and-half years in the state. Neither the previous AIADMK government nor the present DMK regime took steps to increase power production.

He denied Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's statement that the CPI(M) was part of the Democratic Progressive Alliance(DPA) coalition. The party only had an electoral adjustment with the DMK in the 2006 Assembly poll and only in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura was the party running the coalition government, he added.

He said the government had uptrooted people living in river bed areas and constructed bus terminuses in Nagercoil and Villupuram and High Court building in Madurai. River bed areas should be transferred as Poromboke lands and pattas should be distributed, he added.

He alleged that the DMK was following in the footsteps of the previous AIADMK Government by denying permission to opposition parties to conduct public meetings on the Marina beach in Chennai.

UNI