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Left Divided Over Bandh In IT Sector

By Mrs Gupta, Section News
Posted on Sat Nov 11, 2006 at 02:03:04 AM EST

The CPM leadership which met at an urgent meeting at the party office in Alimuddin Street today, was strongly divided over the issue of observing strike in the IT sector on 14 November. The Left parties have decided to observe a country-wide industrial bandh against the UPA's industrial policy.

While the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and a section of the leadership strongly opposed the inclusion of the IT sector in the proposed bandh, the CITU leaders, Mr Chittabrata Majumdar, Mr Shyamal Chakraborty and the state Transport Minister, Mr Subhas Chakraborty, were among those, who demanded that the IT sector too should be brought under the purview of the bandh since the exploitation of employees in this sector was larger and strong.

The veteran leader, Mr Jyoti Basu, suggested that a final decision in this regards could be taken at the state committee's meeting. But, he wanted that during the bandh on November 14, the IT sector at the Salt Lake be treated as emergency service and its functioning should not be disturbed. Accordingly, the state government was requested to provide special transport facilities and the security for maintaining the basic services on that day. Incidentally, the CPM Politburo which was also divided over the issue, left it to the Chief Minister and the party's state leadership to take an appropriate decision in this regard. The CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc and other partners of the Left Front were also divided over the issue of observing bandh in the IT sector.

However, the INTUC leader, Mr Subrata Mukherjee, declared that they would organise bandh in the IT sector on that day. He wondered how the Chief Minister and the CPM who allowed employees working in hospitals, the Water Supply Department and in the police force to go on strike, could now deprive workers of the IT sector from oberving bandh on November 14 .

He said Mr Bhattacharjee was suffering from ego problem and this was prompting him to take whimsical decisions on the question of observing bandh in the IT sector, transferring of agricultural lands to industries and on some other vital issues.

The SP leader, Mr Amar Singh, who was in the city today, said while the CPI and other Left parties had been agitating with a former Prime Minister, Mr V.P.Singh, in Uttar Pradesh against setting up of IT industries in Lucknow by Mr Anil Ambani's Reliance, these parties were supporting the decision of granting exemption for bandh to the Salt Lake IT sector.

Source- TRIBUNE, Dated, November-11,2006

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