Hyderabad: Workers and trade unions will not allow any private party to take control of public sector undertakings and government banks even if the government goes ahead with its disinvestment plan, said veteran labour leader and former Rajya Sabha member Tapan Sen.
In an interaction with ETV Bharat, Tapan Sen, National General Secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), strongly opposed the government’s intent for strategic disinvestment as announced by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget presented early this month, which aims to reduce the presence of public sector companies in four strategic sectors to bare minimum.
The budget announcement was a drastic change from the earlier position taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last year when Sitharaman had said that there could be up to four public sector companies in strategically important sectors such as energy, power, telecom and financial services.
Several bank unions have already announced their intent to call for a two-day nationwide strike next month on March 15 and 16 against the government’s privatisation move.
However, Tapan Sen clarified that the trade unions will not stop at the strike and protest alone.
“It will not be just agitation or approaching this or that. We will not allow the takeover. Even if somebody purchases a PSU, we will not allow them to take possession,” said Tapan Sen.
“There will be resistance by the workers at the factory gate,” he told ETV Bharat.
Tapan Sen says there will be communication with the government through their own channels even if it may be a useless exercise.
“The basic point is that we will have to oppose the move through some concrete action,” said the veteran trade union leader.
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Privatisation
Talking about the ongoing agitation at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Tapan Sen says the move to privatise the steel plant will be strongly opposed.
“The government is also going ahead with the privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant so the workers' agitation is going on there almost on a daily basis,'' Tapan Sen said.
“There is no respite on anything. On February 18, almost all the political parties are coming together to protest this privatisation with the determination that we will not allow this.
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, owned by public sector undertaking Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), was founded in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh in 1971 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The government has already kick-started the process to divest its stake in several public sector undertakings, including Air India, BPCL and Visakhapatnam Steel plant owned by the RINL.
In her budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced the government’s intent to privatise two more public sector banks in addition to the IDBI and one general insurance company in the next financial year.
