Left parties list issues for UPA govt

Left parties on Thursday listed several issues they considered 'priority items' for the United Progressive Alliance government to take up for the benefit of the common man.

"We have listed several issues, including urgent political ones like the situation in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir. These two issues have to be seriously discussed at the Coordination Committee (between Left parties and UPA government) meeting," Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan told reporters after an hour-long meeting of the four Left parties in Delhi.

Also Read Manipur leaders storm out of Patil's meeting

Asked about the government's response on FDI in insurance and telecom sectors and other issues raised at the previous meeting of the Committee, Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Abani Roy said, "The government has assured us active consideration (of these issues). We are still awaiting their response."

The next meeting of the Coordination Committee is likely to be held in the last week of September, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from his foreign tour.

Elaborating on other issues, Bardhan said, "We feel that the government must address the priority items listed in the Common Minimum Programme, which affect 90 per cent of the people especially those in rural areas."

These include enactment of a National Employment Guarantee Act to provide employment to the rural poor through measures like food-for-work programmes.

"We would like to know when the government will legislate on this issue or whether they have identified the districts where such measures would be undertaken on priority," he said.

Provision of drinking water and a comprehensive legislation on agricultural workers should also be given priority, the CPI leader said.

Reiterating their demand that there should be 'no privatisation' of airports, the Left parties would also like to have a detailed discussion on the modernisation and restructuring of Mumbai and Delhi airports, he said.

He wanted 'certain points' in the new EXIM policy announced by the commerce ministry to be reconsidered as 'these would go against national interests'. The Electricity Act, 2003, should also be reviewed, he said.

Asked what the Left parties, providing crucial outside support, would do in case their concerns were not addressed by the government, Bardhan said some differences 'will remain'.

Roy said, "We will cross the bridge when we reach it."

Others who attended the meeting were D Raja (CPI), Prakash Karat (CPI-M), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP).