A meeting was held by the CITU at the HPCL gate here on Friday to oppose the move of the Centre to privatise public sector oil companies, as a run-up to the proposed All India strike on November 26 against the anti-worker, anti-people policies of the NDA government.
Addressing the workers, CITU city general secretary M. Jaggu Naidu alleged that the Centre was planning to privatise BPCL and to sell its stake in the IOC. He said that HPCL was already merged with ONGC and the latter was made to raise funds in this regard. He alleged that the Centre was now planning to privatise ONGC on the plea that it has run into debts.
The CITU leader said that the public sector oil companies were contributing thousands of crores of rupees to the government in the form of taxes besides providing employment to youth. They have stood as the backbone of the economy of the nation. They were providing their CSR funds to the tune of several crores for the development of various projects in Visakhapatnam city.
The privatisation of oil companies would result in a steep hike in petrol/diesel prices and it would have a cascading effect on the prices of all essential commodities.
He alleged that the Modi government was planning to handover the public sector oil companies to corporate groups like Ambanis. He called upon all sections of the people to raise their voice against the ‘anti-worker’ and ‘anti-people’ policies of the government. The Centre had converted 44 labour laws into four labour codes in a bid to deprive workers of their rights, he alleged.
CITU Malkapuram Zone leaders P. Pydiraju, R. Lakshmana Murthy and K. Penta Rao were among those who participated.