Deepening of differences between the TDP and the BJP has given a glimmer of hope among the employees of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) that the State will adopt a serious stand over the Centre’s decision to go ahead with the strategic sale of its total equity in the Category I of the ‘miniratna’ company.
The employees of the public sector, who were in an agitation mode, feel that having given up all hopes of stopping the decision after Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari made it clear that they would go ahead with disinvestment, the recent face-off between the two NDA constituents had created curiosity among them to wait for the next course of action by the TDP.
When the employees met Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu here immediately after the suicide of an employee, they were promised that the State government would take up the issue with the Centre. However, nothing noteworthy happened after that.
“Now, there is a possibility that Mr. Naidu will take a firm decision against DCI privatisation, the second public sector after Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited to have headquarters in Visakhapatnam,” DCI Non-Executive Employees’ Union honorary president V.S. Padmanabha Raju told The Hindu .
Shrinking revenues
The DCI has been earning profit since inception in 1976.
Its revenues started shrinking recently due to competition by the private players and non-payment of ₹167 crore it had invested in the Sethusamudram project, which had not materialised since it was taken in the earlier stint of the NDA at the Centre.
