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CPI urges Centre to impose quake surcharge

The Communist Party of India on Thursday urged the Centre to impose quake surcharge on the corporate sector and high income tax payee industrial houses to counterbalance the heavy losses incurred during the recent earthquake in Gujarat.

CPI secretary A B Bardhan said that instead of imposing fresh taxes on the common people, as a counterbalancing act the centre should impose quake surcharge on the corporate sector and big industrial houses to offset the impact of the earthquake on the country's economy.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the tardy pace of relief and rescue operations in the quake-affected areas of Gujarat, Bardhan said the government should establish better co-ordination with foreign rescue teams and speed up operations.

"It is sad that thousands of people are still trapped under the debris in Gujarat," the CPI leader who was here on his way back from Ramgarh where he had gone to campaign for his party nominee Nadra Begum for the February 19 bye-elections said.

When asked how he rated his party's prospects in the ensuing bye-elections in Ramgarh, Bardhan said the CPI will retain the seat and the BJP, which has fielded the Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi from the seat, will finish third as in the last assembly elections.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

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