A LARGE contingent of activists of Kerala Karshaka Sangham, the affiliated unit of the All India Kisan Sabha marched towards Parliament Street, New Delhi and sat in a day-long dharna on July 26, 2022, to bring a very sensitive and dangerous issue of human-animal conflict in the state of Kerala to the attention of the union government. Nearly 150 farmers and tribals from Kerala joined the dharna. P Krishnaprasad, finance secretary, AIKS gave the welcome address, while Valsan Panoli, secretary of the Kerala Karshaka Sangham chaired the meeting.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on July 27THE suspension of four opposition MPs of the Lok Sabha and 20 MPs of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha including two MPs of the CPI(M) on successive days is a serious blow to the democratic functioning of parliament.
IN July this year, the world is celebrating 200 years of Gregor Mendel's birth, widely accepted as the father of genetics. His experiments with peas, published in 1866 as Experiments in Plant Hybridisation, identified dominant and recessive traits and how recessive traits would reappear in future generations and in what proportion.
A DELEGATION of the Apple Farmers Federation of India(AFFI) affiliated with the AIKS met the union agriculture minister on July 26 and apprised him of the problems being faced by the apple farmers in the country.The AFFI also submitted a memorandum to the minister. The contents of the memorandum include:REMUNERATIVE PRICEEnsure legally guaranteed procurement and minimum support price (MSP) @C2+50 per cent for apple and entrust a commission or authority to calculate MSP in a timely manner and declare the price every season.
AT the call of the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH), thousands of Anganwadi workers and helpers participated in the ‘Anganwadi Adhikar Mahapadav’ that began in New Delhi on July 26. The four-day long mahapadav will conclude on July 29 with a pledge to intensify the struggles further. More than seven thousand Anganwadi workers and helpers joined the mahapadav on its first day with a resolve to fight against anti-worker, anti-people, anti-scheme workers policies of the ruling dispensation.
ON August 7, 2022, Colombia will have a new president (Gustavo Petro) and a vice president (Francia Márquez), both stalwarts of the country’s left-wing movements. They will form the first left government since the country won its independence in 1810. Two months later, on October 2, the people of Brazil will vote in the first round of their presidential elections.
LEFT, secular and democratic parties in Karnataka held a state-level convention in Bengaluru for a harmonious, prosperous people's Karnataka. The convention was held on July 16, 2022, in Ambedkar Bhavan. In this convention, more than one thousand activists and cadres of CPI(M), CPI, SUCI(C), CPIML( Liberation), Forward Block, RPI and Swaraj India participated.
REFERRING to a list of 12 grains and their flours, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that “GST on these goods shall apply when supplied in ‘pre-packaged and labelled’ commodities attracting the provisions of Legal Metrology Act. For example, items like pulses, cereals like rice, wheat, and flour, etc, earlier attracted GST at the rate of 5 per cent when branded and packed in unit container. From July 18, 2022, these items would attract GST when “pre-packaged and labelled”.BRANDED AND UNBRANDEDLet us clarify this rigmarole.
THE Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Kerala Union of Working Journalist (KUWJ) Delhi Unit, in a joint statement on July 28, have expressed serious concern, both at the curbs on Kashmiri journalist Aakash Hassan, who was ‘barred’ from flying to Sri Lanka for coverage and the arrest warrant against journalist Ravi Nair in an Adani defamation suit.
THE GST Council in its 47th Meeting held on June 28-29 had recommended imposition of 5 per cent GST on dairy products and 18 per cent GST on dairy machinery.