The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has urged the Union government to desist from the move to sell shares of the profit-making public sector shipbuilding firm — the Cochin Shipyard.
P. Rajeev, district secretary of the yard, said the yard had done the public enterprises in the country proud by making profit for successive years.
'Yard finacially sound'
While the yard was financially sound, with a balance of Rs 1,500 crore and was building India’s most prestigious warship, the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, the disinvestment move would jeopardize national security, he said.
The government, he said, was creating the smokescreen of development and expansion of the yard to push its actual agenda. In fact, it already had adequate finances to fund the construction of a dry-dock. Same was the case with the international ship repair facility on the Cochin Port premises.
Mr. Rajeev also alleged a move to bring about a partnership between the yard and private player L&T’s shipping wing. He said the party would throw its weight behind the joint trade unions that were formulating widespread agitation against the disinvestment proposal.
