The Left parties in Manipur – CPI (M) , CPI , RSP and AIFB, said that India today, particularly Manipur, is in the grip of the worst humanitarian health crisis since independence.
TFM Desk
The Left parties in Manipur – CPI (M) , CPI , RSP and AIFB, extended their solidarity with the international working class on the occasion of May Day. The Left parties said they are with the working class in the struggle to combat the pandemic and safeguard the rights of the working people.
Communist Party of India secretary L Sotinkumar, Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary Kshetrimayum Santa, All India Forward Bloc secretary Khomdram Gyaneshor, and Revolutionary Socialist Party secretary Kangjam Manoranjan issued a joint press release on Sunday.
India today, particularly Manipur, is in the grip of the worst humanitarian health crisis since independence, the release said. Worse, the scourge of the pandemic continues to intensify. Immediate measures to combat the pandemic, protect people’s lives and livelihoods are needed to be undertaken by the central government on a war footing, it added.
The Left parties also demanded that provision of oxygen to all hospitals and people needing it must be ensured immediately. A free universal vaccination programme should be launched across the country, it added.
The Union and state governments must immediately ensure the availability of hospital beds, ventilators, ICU beds, particularly in the rural areas where the pandemic is spreading rapidly, it said.
The release also demanded that the budgetary allocation of Rs.35,000 crores should be sent and the fund collected in the PM Cares Fund should be released immediately. It also asserted that the construction of the Rs. 20,000 crores Central Vista (New Parliament at Delhi) must be stopped immediately, and instead the money should be used for procuring vaccines.
The Union government must invoke compulsory licensing to produce both vaccines and life saving drugs by all competent facilities and prices of essential drugs and oxygen must be strictly controlled, it said and urged the government to clampdown on the hoarding and black marketing.
The Left parties also demanded that Rs. 7500 should be directly transferred to all families in the non-income tax paying bracket and distribute foodgrains to all needy at free of cost.
One whole year has been wasted by the governments which did not heed any of our suggestions, the parties said. Instead the governments promoted mega super spreader events, it said and added, the country cannot afford to lose any more time.
The joint release also stated that if governments do not immediately deliver the Left parties’ demands, the governments will completely lose its moral authority to continue to remain in office.