CPM demands food security for all

BHUBANESWAR: Demanding food security for all the citizen of the country, the workers and supporters of Bhubaneswar district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged demonstration in front of the Food Corporation of India (FCI)’s regional office here on Wednesday.

The supporters and workers of the party led by CPM State secretary Janardan Pati, party’s Bhubaneswar district committee secretary Suresh Panigrahy and party State committee member Sarat Das came in a procession from Vani Vihar square to FCI office here demanding the right to food through a universal public distribution system (PDS).

In their memorandum, the party urged the Government to adopt the universal PDS by scrapping the present classification of BPL and APL system. Blaming the ‘highly dubious’ poverty estimates of Planning Commission, the party said that the Government should reject such wrong estimates. The party also demanded it should implement Swaminathan Committees’ recommendations to save the farmers of the country and to take steps on war footing to control the price rise. During the demonstration, the party slammed the UPA Government which failed to control prices of most essential commodities.

The CPM State secretary Pati demanded the Government to bring a people friendly Food Security Bill in the Parliament to provide food security to the countrymen. The Government should distribute the surplus food grains in the tune of five crore tonne in different godowns inside the country, he added.