Countrywide Protest Against Disinvestment

THE CITU congratulated the employees of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) for the strike action commencing from July 4, 2006 against the government decision of disinvesting 10 per cent government shares in NLC.  “The total success of the indefinite strike called by all the trade unions and association of NLC leading to virtual bandh of Neyveli town and its surrounding areas has given a clear message to the UPA government to either rescind its decision of disinvestment immediately or face the wrath not only the employees of NLC but the people of the country as well”, it stated.

The CITU also congratulated the workers who have demonstrated all over the country to show their solidarity with employees of NLC and NALCO in their exemplary fight against creeping privatisation.

In Delhi, central trade unions viz CITU, AITUC, HMS, BMS, UTUC, UTUC(LS), TUCC, AICCTU and other industrial federations organised a rally against the government decision of disinvestment of NALCO, NLC and NMDC The union leaders Tapan Sen, MP, W R Varada Rajan (CITU), Abani Roy, MP (UTUC), K Devrajan (TUCC), A N Dogra (BMS), Rajendra Singh (HMS) and S N Sharma (AITUC) warned the government that the fight against disinvestment would not remain limited in Orissa and Tamilnadu and if the government does not desist from path of creeping privatisation, the central trade unions would giving a fitting reply to government with the same fighting spirit in all India level as has been demonstrated by the employees of NALCO and NLC.

The NLC employees, by their total strike, have asserted that the issue is one of stopping the sale of NLC shares in violation of the NCMP and not of determining who the purchasers would be. By spurning the offer by the government to increase preferential share allotment to employees, engineers and workers of NLC have shown that ‘briberisation’ as a part of privatisation would be treated with the contempt it deserves, stated the CITU.

(INN)