YSR Congress Party MP V. Vijaysai Reddy on Thursday said his party would raise the Centre’s “unilateral” decision on privatisation of the profit-making Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) in the winter session of Parliament.
After calling on employees who were on a relay hunger strike at the Three Horse Junction here along with party leaders, he said the party would also hold talks with leaders of the Left parties such as Sitaram Yechury and Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy to mobilise support over the issue.
He said the fight against the DCI disinvestment should be taken up by all the parties, and wondered why the TDP had so far remained a mute spectator.
Accompanied by former Union Minister Ummareddy Venkateswarlu and YSRCP city president Malla Vijaya Prasad, he paid tributes to N. Venkatesh, an employee who had committed suicide following the Centre’s decision to privatise the company.
Mr. Vijaysai Reddy said the party had raised the issue earlier in the Rajya Sabha and, in his reply, Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya had categorically denied any move to privatise the DCI. He said there was no justification to privatise a profit-making organisation just to achieve the budgetary target of raising funds by selling equity of public sector units.
Letter to Gadkari
In a letter to Union Shipping and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, he stated that the reports on proposed disinvestment had devastated the employees’ morale and the functioning of the head office had come to a standstill. There had been a constant agitation against the government’s proposal, and a protest camp had been set up at the Three Horse Junction, where the employees were on relay hunger strike.
He also brought to the notice of Mr. Gadkari as to how one of the employees had committed suicide by jumping in front of a train near Vizianagaram.
As per the suicide note, Venkatesh feared for his job if the proposed sale was executed, Mr. Vijaysai said.
He also mentioned about the strategic importance of the DCI in serving the national interest by serving the Indian Navy and other the major ports.
