Patna: After enforcing a successful Bihar
bandh protesting price rise, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today
demanded "Right to Food" be declared as fundamental right of
the people.
Besides, the Centre should place the Right to Food
Guarantee and Security Bill in Parliament and enact it into a
law for the benefit of the poor, Prasad said after taking over
the charge of the party for the seventh term in succession in
an open session of RJD here.
Later in a political resolution, the party ratified
Prasad's demand for Right to Food as fundamental right and
said the United Nations had passed a resolution in 1974
declaring 'food' as the fundamental right of the people.
As many as 156 countries had ratified the resolution,
it said.
Alleging that poor people were dying of hunger, NREGA
being a failure, BPL list still remaining erroneous in the
state, Prasad said the Nitish Kumar Government was busy
collecting awards.
Blaming both the central and state governments for the
price rise, he said RJD would soon launch a country-wide stir
in consultation with other parties. The Bihar Government had
failed to take action against black marketeers and hoarders,
he said.
The resolution asked the central and state governments to
hold talks with the Maoists, enabling them to join the
mainstream.
"The RJD is against the use of force and using the army
to eliminate the Naxals and prefers a dialogue with them so
that an atmosphere of mutual belief can be created between
the Naxals and law enforcing machinery," it said.
In another resolution, RJD flayed the NDA government in
Bihar for "not initiating action" to improve the credit
deposit ratio in the state.
The RJD welcomed the nuclear agreement signed between
South Korea and India and said the Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with that country would go a long
way in cementing relationship between the two countries.
Resolutions on improving the lot of minorities and
Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) and Other Backward Castes
(OBCs) were also adopted which charged the Nitish Kumar
Government with trying to divide the society on caste lines.
In another resolution on improving the lot of scheduled
castes, the RJD flayed the Bihar Government for allegedly
creating a rift among the SCs by creating a 'Mahadalit
Commission.'
The RJD leaders took a vow to continue their struggle to
safeguard the interests of the minorities, poor, Dalits and
other weaker sections of the society and bring back the party
back to power for the development of the state.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010, 23:32