Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) national secretary Swadesh Dev Roye has said that the Union Government has pushed the privatisation policy to the extreme through National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) and is trying to dupe the public by saying there is ‘no privatisation’ but only lease of public assets to private investors.
Interacting with the media on the sidelines of a meeting, along with CITU president K. Hemalata, at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) township here on Sunday, he expressed satisfaction that 200 CITU leaders from across the country were participating in the deliberations, which would go on till late in the evening.
They would go back to their respective States and mobilise the workers and the general public for the all India general strike against privatisation of public sector unis (PSUs) to be held on February 23 and 24.
Ms. Hemalata said that the meeting was convened to oppose the handing over of PSUs to corporate groups on a platter.
Kerala State CITU president K.N. Gopinath spoke about the efforts of the Kerala government in saving the BPCL refinery at Kochi. The Union government was bent on privatising the refinery though it has earned ₹6,000 crore during 2020-21, he said. He alleged that the Union government was hurting the development of Kerala with its lopsided policies.