Communist Party of India(Marxist) has decided to launch a week-long agitation from May 23 in Gujarat to highlight the problems of drinking water, commercialisation of education and health among others.
"In Gujarat, people in more than 10,000 villages and 43 cities are facing acute shortage of drinking water. We are launching a week-long agitation from May 23 during which scores of party workers will stage dharna, demonstrations and will court arrests en masse," CPM Gujarat secretary Arun Mehta told reporters here today.
He said, "our Chief Minister is busy showcasing his so called development model everywhere but people in 14 districts of the state are not getting drinking water."
"Areas under four Municipal Corporations out of seven, are getting drinking water once every four days whereas 43 cities, mostly in Saurashtra, Kutch and North Gujarat are getting water only once every seven days," he said.
As part of the agitation programme from May 23 to 31, the party workers will do picketing in front of government offices to put forward their demands for drinking water as also other demands like 35 kg grains at the rate of Rs 2 per kg, reduction in power tariff among others.
"There is no such thing as 'development model of Gujarat' as claimed by Modi, because poverty, malnutrition and number of homeless people have increased in Gujarat and only 10 per cent of the population has seen increase in their wealth," Veteran Parliamentarian and CPI(M) MP Basudeb Acharia alleged.
