CPIM concerned on National Security Advisor's warnings

The CPIM on Sunday expressed its concern over terrorists groups investing in stocks, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Feb 18, 2007, 19:17:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The CPIM on Sunday expressed its concern over terrorists groups investing in stocks and suggested that government should ban investments made by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) through the Participatory Notes route.

Funds routes through participatory notes route account for about 40 per cent of the $8.3 billion invested by FIIs in the Indian securities market in 2006. The share of P-Notes (as participatory notes are commonly referred to) has gone up from 24 per cent earlier this year to the current level, according to SEBI.

Reacting to National Security Advisor M K Narayanan statement that terrorist groups were investing in stocks, CPIM general secretary Prakash Karat the source of funds through PN route was not verifiable for the RBI or SEBI. The Tarapore Committee on capital account convertibility had recommended prohibition of fresh investment through the PN route.

The party, after polit bureau meeting, urged the UPA government to immediately ban fresh issuing of PN notes and phase out the existing PNs in a few months time.

SEZ

The CPIM polit bureau decided to put on hold acquisition of land for major Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in West Bengal, till the Centre clarifies on its SEZ policy. The issue is being deliberated by a Group of Ministers headed by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukerjee.

Prakash Karat said SEZ was a national phenomenon and not limited to West Bengal alone, while backing the state government on Singur issue. But still, the state government has decided not to acquire any land till the issue is settled by the Centre, he added. The CPIM has already submitted its note on SEZs to the GoM and wants the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 to be reviewed to protect rights of landholders and those dependent on that land.

The polit bureau also discussed the issue of price rise, likely to be raised in the budget session of the Parliament and India’s foreign policy, especially with regard to Iran. “We want India to make its stand clear on Iran in wake of George Bush accusing Iran for trouble in Iraq,” Karat said, while asking government to go ahead on Iran-India pipeline. The issue of communal tension in parts of India was also discussed at the meeting.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan @hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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