AITUC opposes govt's move to privatise 22 state-run firms

The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) today came out strongly against the central government for its steps to privatise 22 public sector undertakings, terming them "anti-people policy of strategic sale".

Under the strategic sale, the government's stake goes below 50 per cent in PSUs, which is otherwise known as privatisation.

AITUC has called a meeting with other central unions to deliberate on the issue and decide on future course of action.

"The AITUC secretariat condemns the move of the central government to privatise 22 PSUs under its anti-people policy of strategic sale. The sale includes engineering and electronic corporations, besides 67 discovered oil fields by ONGC and Oil India," AITUC Secretary D L Sachdev said in a press statement.

AITUC also denounced the government statement to privatise more PSUs as part of policy. Sale of these PSUs would undermine economic sovereignty of the country, it alleged.

On September 2, the central unions had observed an all-India strike to press for their 12-point charter of demands, which included a 'no' to privatisation of PSUs.

AITUC has appealed to its constituents to move jointly against the strategic sale of PSUs, which "if carried out will further weaken economic self-reliance and sovereignty of the country".