Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu on Sunday alleged that the Centre is using the COVID-19 pandemic as a convenient excuse to hasten the process of privatisation and monetisation of public sector units in order to hand over their assets to ‘crony capitalists like Ambanis and Adanis’.
Addressing a meeting on ‘Current political and economic situation – Responsibilities’, organised by the CPI(M) Greater Visakha City Committee at Kalabharathi on Sunday, Mr. Raghavulu called upon party workers to create awareness among the public on the ‘agenda of the BJP government’ to hand over public assets to corporate groups. In view of the stiff resistance from people to privatisation policies, the Centre has come out with a monetisation proposal to lease public assets to corporate groups on the plea of raising loans, he alleged.
As the ‘strategic sale of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP)’ was being opposed by workers tooth and nail, the Centre is trying to go for partial privatisation like selling coke ovens of the plant, Mr. Raghavulu claimed.
“Coke ovens are the heart of a steel plant, and selling or leasing them to private players would put VSP at the mercy of the private player. Similarly, a decision was taken to privatise two banks in the first phase and the unions have announced their decision to go on a two-day strike. Industries manufacturing defence equipment were removed from the purview of the Ministry of Defence, and made into four companies, to prepare the ground for their sale to private players,” he alleged.
Referring to the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and its threat to the world economy, Mr. Raghavulu advised the party cadres to be prepared to render assistance to the people if the need arose, along with NGOs and doctors. He also cautioned party workers to not be complacent but wear masks at all times as studies on the impact of the new variant were still being done.
The CPI(M) leader recalled that the pandemic has led to closure of industries and loss of employment and livelihoods besides hitting the education sector badly. In the name of online education, the poorer sections were deprived of education, which was evident from the high dropout rate. The BJP government was putting pressure on State government to toe its line on monetization of assets to avail of loans from banks. He called upon all political parties to oppose the dangerous trend.
CPI(M) State Committee member B. Ganga Rao presided.
State Secretariat Member Ch. Narasinga Rao, District Committee secretary K. Lokanadham, State Committee member B. Prabhavathi, party leaders B. Padma, R.K.S.V. Kumar, K.M. Srinivas, Botta Eswaramma and B. Jagan took part.
