Left firm on pulling plug on UPA govt

Kozhikode, Jun 27 (UNI) The Left parties are firm on withdrawing support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signs the nuclear deal with the US, Debabrata Biswas, MP, General Secretary, All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), which is part of the four-member Left bloc said today.

''We will go to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and submit a letter to the President withdrawing outside support to the 50-month old government'', he told reporters here.

In such a scenario, the fate of the coalition government would be known by the first week of next month, Mr Biswas, who was here to address a leadership camp organised by his party, said.

The Left Coordination Committee would meet in New Delhi by the end of this month to analyse and take an appropriate decision on the issue, he said.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had convened its polit bureau meeting on June 29 followed by a CPI meet on July 1 to discuss the issue threadbare before taking a final decision, he said.

When pointed out that this would impose general elections on the country, he said, ''there is no alternative''. The Singh government seems to be adamant about going ahead with the proposed deal.

The deal would be ''disastrous'' for the country and would only serve the purpose of big corporate houses in both the nations and the military interests of the US, he alleged.

The Left had already submitted many proposals on the generation of alternate energy resources, including hydel power, but the Centre was not listening as''it seems to be acting at the dictatesof the US'', he alleged.

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