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The strong American lobby behind the Volcker report, aimed at the ouster of the Indian external affairs minister K Natwar Singh should not be ignored, according to the West Bengal chief minister.
Speaking at a media briefing on the completion of almost five years in office, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief minister of West Bengal, said that he agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's stance of the resignation being morally right keeping in view the circumstances.But the American lobby and influence in whole exercise could not be denied.
Bhattacharjee said that he did not perceive any dichotomy in the Left's ideological opposition of the weapons exercise and defence alliances and the welcoming of American investment, technology and education exercise for West Bengal.
"Dr Singh had called me as he was under the impression that we would try to stop the exercise and he has requested for infrastructure and logistic support for the Kalaikunda exercise and it is the Left Front government's constitutional position to abide by it," Bhattacharjee added.
The state government has exercised its right to demonstrate and showed its disapproval of the American hegemony over defense and weapons across the globe and India should join hands with China and Russia to prevent it.
The chief minister said that a resolution regarding the issue of unions in the information technology and allied sectors, including right to strike would be taken up at the Central Committee Meeting to be held between November 13-15 for which Bhattacharjee would be present.
"We will not tolerate outsiders or agitations in front of IT offices," assured Bhattacharjee.
When questioned regarding the pussyfooting of the state government with regard to the Right to Information Act 2005, Bhattacharjee said that the state government agrees in spirit with the act and is in the process of appointing nodal officers for the same from every department which would be coordinated by the state information department and the state information commission would be constituted with a statutory post.
The chief minister also said that the states, including West Bengal, were confused on the issue as the information law did not have rules.
The Right to Information Act 2005 website provided rules in detail regarding the role of the state government in setting the process in motion, but Bhattacharjee chose to ignore the point.
Bhattacharjee said the figure of 70 lakh registered unemployed persons in the state was a myth."The 70 lakh figure does not take into account that the advent of many new and regenerated sectors like IT and chemicals and plastics which have given employment to thousands of people and also the existence of 2.5 lakh self help groups in the state mostly run by women and self-employed people," Bhattacharjee elaborated.
Many of the unemployed had jobs by now but there was no procedure to correct the records. Bhattacharjee admitted health infrastructure, the quality of primary school education and the transport system were areas which had serious problems.
