Minister for General Education and Labour V. Sivankutty has flayed the central government move to open up the country’s space sector to private players.
Inaugurating the 39th annual meet of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Staff Association here on Sunday, Mr. Sivankutty called the move to ‘privatise ISRO’ dangerous.
The Central Government has kicked off privatisation in the strategically-important institution under the pretext of Atma Nirbhar Abhiyaan. Any move to throw open the national space agency and its facilities, painstakingly built over the decades with the taxpayer’s money, to capitalist forces in the name of privatisation can in no way be justified, Mr. Sivankutty said.
Contributions made by ISRO to the growth and progress of not just the industrial sector by the Indian economy as a whole are not small. The space agency operates with the support of public sector as well as numerous private industries. The Space Activities Bill will nullify the edge enjoyed by ISRO in the space sector, Mr. Sivankutty alleged.
He called upon workers to unite against the move. The LDF Government has adopted the stand that anti-labour policies of the Centre will not be enforced in Kerala. It is in this context that Kerala stands as a model for the rest of the country, he added.
