'UPA's special packages failed to stop suicides'

Hyderabad, Jan 7: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechuri today said the special packages announced by the UPA government at the Centre have failed to stop the farmers from committing suicides.

Inaugurating Bank Employees Federation of India's (BEFI) Seventh General Conference here, Mr Yechuri, whose party is also a UPA ally, said the recently announced packages by the Centre failed to render justice to the farmers, who were in a debt trap.

Urging the Centre to provide more institutional credit to the farmers, he said the farmers committed suicide unable to bear the huge interest rates on loans taken from private money lenders in the villages.

He demanded that the Centre should bring in new legislations for acquiring lands to promote Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and to provide sufficient compensation to the displaced farmers and agriculture labourers.

On FDI, privatisation and outsourcing in banking, Mr Yechuri said the Left would not support the UPA's policies, which were against the interests of Public Sector Banks.

UNI