Wednesday, May 18 2005 11:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The crucial meeting of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-Left Coordination Committee began in New Delhi this morning (May 18, 2005) to review the performance of the Manmohan Singh Government, which is completing one year in office on Sunday (May 22, 2005).

Presided over by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the meeting being held at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is expected to have a detailed discussion on the Government's achievements and the reservations expressed by the supporting Left parties on several key economic policies.

The Left parties are unhappy over issues relating to the poor not being addressed seriously during the first year of the UPA rule.

The Government has been charged by the Left parties with not taking any initiative for bringing legislations for the benefit of the unorganised sector, agriculture workers and women's reservation while Congress has been accused of not exerting the pressure it should have in the case of the Employment Guarantee Bill.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Prakash Karat, Communist Party of India (CPI) leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja, Republican Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy, Forward Bloc leader Debabrat Biswas, E Ahmed of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Laloo Prasad, Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan, People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao are attending the meeting.

Union Ministers belonging to the Congress party, including Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, HRD Minister Arjun Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, will also be present at the meeting and are likely to brief the UPA allies about the one-year performance of the Government in their respective fields.

Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni and political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel are also attending the meeting.

Apart from the Congress, several Ministers from alliance partners, including Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran are likely to brief the meeting with regard to performance of their respective Ministries, source said.

The DMK is expected to raise four points during the presentation, which include inter-linking of rivers, desalination plants for Chennai, rights for States to decide on reservation quotas and reservation for OBCs in the private sector, the sources said.

The Left parties are also expected to strongly pitch for the handing over of six major Gujarat riot related cases, pending before the Supreme Court, to CBI in the wake of remarks by former State Governor S S Bhandari that the Modi Government had failed to curb violence and the then Central Government did not play its due role.

Besides this, the second framing of charges against Railway Minister Laloo Prasad by a special CBI court in the fodder scam case is also likely to figure at the meeting with two of the Left constituents - Forward Bloc and RSP - demanding his resignation.