CPM seeks govt intervention to contain fanatics

New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) Deeply anguished over the rise of chauvinist, regional and linguistic fanatics in the country, the CPM today sought the UPA government's immediate intervention to ensure that the hapless and the poor are not killed.

At a press conference here, the CPM also demanded that the Centre to take immediate steps to contain abnormal rise in prices of essential commodities and inflation saying, it had greatly upset the family budget of not only the poor but lower and middle classes.

The budget of every family had gone up by Rs 650 per month due to the price rise and inflation, it said, adding that when the inflation was below 5 per cent, it did not impact the price rise much but after it's touching almost 6 per cent, a huge difference has been made.

CPM Floor leaders in the Lok Sabha, Basudev Achariya and Saleem Mohammad, said the government intervention was also necessitated in the wake of killing of 14 Hindi-speaking people in Manipur, the killing of north Indians in Assam and the incidents of people of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh being beaten up and harassed in Maharashtra.

They said the man on the street -- be it the taxi driver, small shopkeeper or an industrial worker -- had to bear the wrath of the linguistic fanatics as a result of which thousands of people have started fleeing these states fearing for their lives.

Quoting facts and figures, the Left leaders brought the point home that the development of Maharashtra, Manipur and the northeast states is likely to get a setback as a result of violence against these sections.

On the price rise and soaring inflation, they questioned the sincerity of the government as it had not allowed a structured debate on the issue in the Lok Sabha despite their giving a notice for the calling attention and the discussion under 193 since the Monsoon Session last year.

"The Finance Minister P Chidambaram, despite giving an assurance twice to contain the price rise, has miserably failed to provide essential commodities to the people at an affordable price." "The price of almost every essential item has seen an abnormal increase during the last 15 days after the budget presentation," the CPM leaders said.

The issue would not be discussed during the first half of the Budget Session as the House was going to be adjourned today, they said.

They observed that the issue of ''mehangai'' (price rise) had now become the most burning problem before the nation when both the NDA and the UPA governments never considered it an issue. They always argued that 5-6 per cent inflation is GDP infused and manageable but now they have been proved wrong.

The CPM leaders said even the government had now conceeded that there is also a problem of production of food grains and their procurement.

It is all the more unfortunate that the government had chosen to virtually kill the PDS, thereby contributing to the crisis.

UNI KSA AKJ AS1622