Members of various trade unions and associations in the insurance sector held protests in front of LIC office in Belagavi on Thursday, against what they called sale of LIC and other public sector undertakings to the private sector.
Members of LIC Class 1 officers association, LIC SC/ST Welfare Association, Insurance Employees Union, LIC Pensioners Association and other associations gathered in front of the LIC Belgaum Divisional Office and shouted slogans against the Union government’s move to announce the Initial Public Offer and the decision to increase Foreign Direct Investment to 74%.
They demanded that the government drop these plans now and sanction the wage revision plan for employees with immediate effect. They said that these plans were nothing but an outright sale of public assets built with the savings and taxes paid by the general public.
S.K. Kulkarni, union leader, said that bank unions and insurance unions were protesting against such regressive moves across the country this whole week. He said that indiscriminate and unregulated privatisation would destroy the country’s economy. The NDA-led Union government is not only selling efficient and profit-making PSUs but also those that would provide financial and other services to the poor at affordable prices. If this vacancy is created, there will be no way to fill it. Private corporations that think of nothing but their profits will not bother to provide services to the common man, he said.
P.A. Joseph, leader of the LIC Pensioners Association, said that reckless privatisation of LIC and other important PSUs would destroy the social security network of citizens in the country. He said that there was a need to create awareness about such initiatives of the government.
Leaders N.Y. Yankannanavar, M.S. Kulkarni, Chandrashekar Bolgundi and others led the protest.
