The CPM welcomes the UPA government’s proposal placed before the National Development Council meeting last month re-emphasising the goal of food security and setting a target of a 20 million tonne increase in foodgrain output by the end of the Eleventh Plan. But the editorial of People’s Democracy picks holes in the government’s resolution, accusing it of wanting to make peasant agriculture subservient to the needs of corporate capitalism. “This is evident not only from the fact that the resolution makes no mention of price-support, tariff policy, procurement operations and the public distribution system, but also from the strong references it makes to contract farming, and from its general technocratic orientation,” says the editorial. If agriculture is opened up to the dictates of the free market, then only those crops will be grown for which there is a demand in the international economy. “Since the demand emanating from the advanced countries is not for additional foodgrains, of which they have huge surpluses, but for a whole range of goods that are not producible in those countries, but are required for a diversified consumption basket (such as fruits and vegetables), opening up to the world market necessarily entails a shift away from foodgrains,” it says. Health policyCPM politburo member Brinda Karat takes a critical look at the health policy. She mentions the widespread prevalence of vector-borne diseases. There were 1.8 million reported cases of malaria last year but the blood examination rate was less than 10 per cent. “The misplaced priorities of the government can be seen in lower allocations for disease prevention programmes over the last few years,” she says. The government appears to have set HIV/AIDS on high priority. “It is indeed a matter of great concern that only around 7 per cent of an estimated 5.2 lakh HIV/AIDS affected persons are currently receiving treatment and the coverage should be expanded. But even as attention towards the prevention of HIV/AIDS is necessary, that attention should not come at the cost of other disease control programmes. The allocation for the national AIDS control programme is Rs 720 crore in budget 2007-08, while the allocation for all the national disease control programmes taken together is only Rs 884 crore,” according to Karat. While welcoming Janani Suraksha Yojana launched by the health ministry to bring down the maternal mortality ratio, the senior CPM leader points out two flaws in it: that it excludes pregnant women below 19 years from institutional deliveries and it is restricted to the birth of only the first two children. Kerala’s leap forwardAn article in People’s Democracy celebrates the first anniversary of the LDF government in Kerala. The most popular initiative of the new government, it says, was the Munnar model of action against encroachment of public and common property resources. Renegotiating the smart city project in Kochi, opposed by the Left, when the previous UDF regime signed an agreement with Dubai-based TECOM, is now projected as another achievement of the LDF government. According to the article, the LDF government wasted no time in renegotiating the agreement with TECOM, taking care of literally every point of criticism that was raised earlier. The new agreement does not involve transfer of infopark, it grants no monopoly rights to TECOM, manages several-fold increases in land prices, assures 26 per cent equity participation for the state government and imposes strict limits on the use of land for non-IT uses, besides switching the mechanism of land transfer to a lease deed. “The smart city project in Kochi will usher in a new era of accelerated development in IT and related areas besides helping the state in attracting investments in its own terms,” says the article. Compiled by D.K. Singh
