CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on December 9, 2019THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) mourns the passing away of Comrade Meitram Shamu, veteran leader of the CPI(M) and former secretary of the state committee of Manipur, at the age of 92. Comrade Shamu joined the Communist Party in 1948 and participated in the peasants movement during the late 1940s and early 1950s.  He became a member of the state secretariat of the Party in 1967.

ON November 9, Comrade S Kumar breathed his last while being taken to a hospital in Raipur. He was 85 years old. On November 7, while walking on a street in Vishrampur, Chattisgarh, he fell down and sustained injuries.Though Comrade Kumar was born in an upper middle class family; his father being a popular physician in Kanpur, he chose to work for the working class movement.

COMRADE Zahoor Siddiqui, veteran communist and leader of the teachers’ movement in Delhi, passed away in Aligarh on November 3. He was 80 years old. Zahoor Siddiqui was amongst the first batch of members of the CPI(M) in Delhi. He became a member of the regional committee of the CPI(M)  whose area of work included Delhi, Haryana and Western UP. Later when the Delhi state committee of the Party was formed in 1977, he became a member of the secretariat of the state committee.

COMRADE Debasish Das, who worked for Peoples Democracy for long and later in Ganashakti expired on October 29, in Siliguri, West Bengal. He was 81. At the time of his death, he was in-charge of managerial work of Siliguri edition of Ganashakti. He had to oversee the affairs of Northern Bengal districts.Comrade Das worked in PD and stayed in Delhi. In 2001, Ganashakti started its Siliguri edition. Comrade Das joined there and performed his duties diligently despite his old age. Recently he suffered a mild stroke and was hospitalised.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Union, in a statement issued on October 12, has expressed its grief at the demise of Comrade R Srinivas, vice president of Karnataka state CITU. He passed away on October 11, 2019 at Bangalore due to massive heart attack while attending a meeting.Comrade Srinivas was the leader of CITU union in BPL who has led the historic strike in 1998. He was victimised and implicated in a false case by the management for which he was sentenced for life imprisonment. He had spent more than 16 years in jail and was released only in 2016.