Cong open to alliance with any political party except CPI(M): Dasmun

Kolkata, Apr 2 (UNI) Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi today made it clear that the Congress was open to forming an alliance with any political party but the CPI(M) or any communal force for the coming Panchayat election.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr Dasmunshi, the state Congress president, said, ''We are ready for an alliance with any party barring the CPI (M) and communal forces in the coming Panchayat election.'' He stated that prior permission for filing nomination for Zilla Parishad would have to be taken from the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), and at the Gram Panchayat and Block levels, permission would have to be taken from the PCC observer.

He demanded holding of the Panchayat election on a single day instead of three days and deployment of more Central para military forces for conducting a free and fair polls.

He said the Congress would observe May Day as a '' tea workers' demand day'', adding Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and North Dinajpur district committee leadership would form a preparatory committee by April 24 to decide the future course of action in favour of the plantation workers.

He alleged that the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government had completely failed in providing the Centre's 100-day National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to the poor and as per the Arjun Sengupta Committee report the State Government's performance in the NGEGS scheme was ''disappointing''.

The West Bengal Government should fix the minimum wages at Rs 80 per day immediately and call an all party meeting to take their views to fix the minimum wages at Rs 125 per day, he said.

The party would organise Padayatra in every block throughout the state for increasing the minimum wages, he added.

Referring the closure of the Satyajit Roy Film Institute, Mr Dasmunshi said the CPI(M) trade union CITU would decide whether it would run or not.

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