Employees of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India staged a one hour walk-out strike from 12.15 p.m. to 1.15 p.m. to register their protest against the Budget proposal to list government shares of the Corporation on the stock exchange.
Employees of all branches walked out from their respective offices and held a meeting to condemn the proposal to list LIC on the stock market for the sale of shares that were currently owned by the Union government.
Insurance Corporation Employees’ Union Vijayawada Unit president Amarnath said that the insurance corporation had paid thousands of crores to the Union government. It paid ₹2,612 crore as a dividend last financial year.
LIC holds 72% market share in life insurance policies and 65% in premium even today.
The total value of its assets was ₹32 lakh crore and it made investments for Central and State governments in different sectors to the tune of ₹28 lakh crore.
Jobs of 1,10,000 employees and 12 lakh agents countrywide were put to danger because of the proposal, said Machilipatnam division secretary Gurram Srinivas.