By IANS
Nagpur : Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan said Sunday that implementation of the common minimum programme (CMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was wholly unsatisfactory.
"The UPA government must undertake a thorough mid-term review of the CMP implementation," he said here at a meet-the-press programme organised by the Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ).
Bardhan also said the Left parties would certainly do so (review) immediately after the election of the president and vice president "whether the UPA does it or not".
"We (Left parties) would review everything including continuation of outside support to the UPA government since it (support) was extended on the basis of the CMP. But exerting greater pressure on UPA is also an option", he added.
"The Left parties could exercise effective pressure on the government during the first two years of the UPA rule and ensure enactment of pro-people measures like National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, but the CMP implementation has slackened of late," the CPI leader said.
Criticising the government's policy of special economic zones (SEZ), Bardhan said a colossal loot of agricultural land for real estate was going on in the name of developing SEZs, which must not be allowed.
Setting terms for the implementation of the SEZ policy 'if it has to proceed', he said no more than 500 to 600 acres of land each should be allotted to industries for setting up SEZ.
Besides, at least half the allotted land must be utilised for setting up the industrial unit itself and all industrial and labour laws must be applied to the units inside the SEZ as to those outside it, the CPI general secretary said.
Rejecting the 'deemed foreign territory' concept of SEZs, Bardhan said the wide disparity between the concessions to the units inside an SEZ and the ones outside it could lead to grossly undesirable situations.
In a reiteration of the CPI insistence of 'rehabilitation first', the Left leader said acquisition of land, particularly agricultural, must be kept to the minimum and fair compensation must be paid against the acquired land.
Provision for comprehensive rehabilitation of the displaced people must be made in advance, he added.
Bardhan said industrial development took place in the country even before the policy was introduced but that if SEZs have to be developed now, the people must be made the beneficiaries, not the victims of development.
Indo-Asian