Chandigarh, May 29
The General Secretary of the CPM, Mr Prakash Karat, today ruled out the merger of his party with the CPI. He said the two parties would continue to work together but would not merge. “It was not a merger of two companies,” he added.
Mr Karat was here today to address party activists and leaders of its Punjab unit. Speaking to mediapersons, in the presence of Prof Balwant Singh, Secretary of the Punjab unit of the CPM, and other leaders, Mr Karat ruled out the possibility of any compromise with a splinter group of the CPM in Punjab.
Mr Karat said his party would not tie up at the political level with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab. Before entering into alliance with any party, one had to examine the policies and programmes of that party.
Talking about free power, he said his party had not given free power in West Bengal and other states where its governments were in the saddle. “It was the policy of our party not to give free power,” he added. However, he said, in the states where free power had already been given, this facility should not be withdrawn abruptly. “In such states small and marginal farmers should continue to get free power,” he added. He was asked to comment on this issue in the light of the statement given by the Prime Minister that free power should not be given to any section.
Mr Karat said the big issue before his party at the moment was to stop the privatisation of power boards, which were being unbundled in the garb of power reforms. It was being done under the Electricity Act-2003, the operation of which should be stopped and necessary amendments made in it. He said the privatisation of power sector would be harmful for people of various
states.
