The World Bank, CPM State secretary B V Raghavulu alleged, was looking to reduce old age pensions and white ration cards by 60 per cent and to start self-help groups with beneficiaries in all the developmental schemes.Terming these as only some of the "anti-people measures" on the bank's agenda, the CPM leader further said the project would help channelise private entrepreneurs into all public utility services. Besides, he lashed out, the Government was agreeing to privatise all public sector units and downsize government staff.

Raghavulu circulated copies of a project appraisal report of the WB on the APERP along with the copies of Chief Minister NChandrababu Naidu's draft statement on the project which is to be placed before the Legislative Assembly tomorrow.

Terming Naidu's statement as a "bundle of lies," Raghavulu said that the CPM MLAs would present the copies of the WB document to the Speaker and urge him to circulate its copies to all members in the House, which he felt duty-bound to do..

Raghavulu even went to the extent of alleging that the WB was trying to actually `aid' the Naidu Government by deferring some of its conditions till the completion of elections to the Assembly by November 1999. "The entire project is politically motivated with malafide intentions," he said.Quoting some of the conditions like setting up tariff regulatory authorities for all the utilities services and privatising all the public sector units in a phased manner, the CPM leader said that the Government had agreed to all these conditions without taking into account the adverse repercussions.Another point which was objected to by the CPM leader was the bank's notethat "the design of the project has been carefully tailored to deal with the political realities in the State". "This is nothing but interfering in the affairs of a sovereign country," he said.

The comment that the World Bank would take a mid-term review in September 2000 was intended to assess the next government's willingness to implement its agenda, Raghavulu said. "It shows that obviously they (WB) would cancel the project if the next government refuses to implement it," he said.Apart from attacking the Government in the Assembly, CPM would also make the the WB conditions as a main poll plank in the next Assembly elections. "We wish to know whether the Chief Minister is ready to treat the next polls as a referendum on the WB policies and dictates?" he asked.

CPM, along with its Left ally, CPI, would highlight the bank's conditions at their joint rally at Vijayawada on April 17, and would also mobilise other Opposition parties including Congress on the issue after the rally.Raghavulu said that futurecourse of action of CPM would be based on three principles fighting against communal forces, opposing anti-people economic policies and providing a third alternative to the people in the next polls."Even if the TDP withdraws support to the BJP-led government at the Centre, we would keep the other two aspects in mind before forging an electoral tie-up with it. As of now, there was no proposal to have a poll pact with the TDP," he explained.