CPI wants Women Reservation Bill to be taken up by Parliament

New Delhi, Apr 24 (UNI) The CPI today demanded that Parliament take up bills on women reservation, prevention of communal riots, land acquisition and rehabilitation and unorganised workers as promised by the UPA government in the common minimum programme.

Claiming that the Congress and BJP were of view of getting the ongoing budget session adjourned ahead of schedule in view of the coming assembly elections in Karnataka, Communist leaders S Sudhakar Reddy and Mr C K Chandrappan said it would be ''highly objectionable'' if Parliament was adjourned before May 9 as scheduled when such important legislative business was pending.

Mr Reddy, who is a member of Parliamentary standing committee on Labour, said the Labour Minister had told him that an empowered group of ministers(eGoM) will hold a meeting with trade union leaders early next week to discuss measures for social security of workers in the unorganised sector.

The CPI leaders said the UPA government's existence and Left support to it were based on its secular credential and hence it was imperative it brought a bill to fight communalism in the current session of Parliament.

Dubbing Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia reported pro-forward trading in foodgrains ''highly objectionable'', they demanded a ban on it as recommended by the Parliamentary standing committee on agriculture. They urged the Centre to restore the foodgrains quota of Kerala which, they claimed, had been reduced by 84 per cent because the state was deficit in food.

Meanwhile, CPI member D Raja, welcoming the April 29 visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urged the UPA government to discuss with him the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline for energy security of the country.

Mr Reddy and he urged the government to take note of US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's ''atrocious and arrogant'' statement threatening obliteration of Iran if it attacked Israel.

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