UPA-Left meet on May 23; foreign matters to come up

New Delhi, May 19: A spirited Left, fresh from their spectacular victory in the just-concluded assembly polls, will interact with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leadership on May 23 to air their reservations on several knotty issues, mainly the negative impact of economic policies, pro- US foreign policy and the attempts to further liberalise the financial sector.

This will be the first UPA- Left Coordination Committee meeting after completion of two years in office of the Manmohan Singh government.

The meeting, to be held at 7 Race Course Road, the Prime Minister's official residence, is being held after a gap of about two months.

Before that, the Left had boycotted the Coordination panel meetings to lodge their protest against the government decision to disinvest ten per cent equity in the BALCO.

''We will take up several issues including financial mismanagment, agrarian crisis leading to farmers suicide, FDI in retail trade, food security among other things".

The Left parties- the CPI(M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP- in their assessment of the government' s performance during its two years rule, have already said that they have not found it "up to the mark" and "satisfactory."

UNI