TN opposes Union government’s PSU privatisation plans
Chief Minister MK Stalin, on Thursday, said that either selling or leasing out public properties is against the interest of the nation and the State government will continue to oppose the plans of the central government.
The issue of the Central government’s decision to sell the share of PSUs was brought as a special calling attention motion by CPI and Congress in which MLAs of both the parties condemned the Central government for trying to sell public properties protected for over 70 years and urged the Chief Minister to take steps to prevent the Centre from selling them.
“Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are the properties of the public. They provide employment and aid economic development. PSUs function as the backbone of MSMEs and they do not function on the basis of profit but for the welfare of people. Selling or leasing out public properties is not good for the interest of the nation,” said Stalin, adding, he will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
Replying to the MLAs, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu said that the national monetisation programme was announced recently by NITI Aayog according to which some of the properties would be partially privatised. The Central government should discuss with the state governments before taking decisions as the land for the PSUs such as Salem Steel Plant were provided by the State. “DMK will never accept privatisation of properties. We have been against privatisation since the time of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.” said the Minister.
In February this year, the Central government had announced a plan to monetise around 100 government assets as part of the monetisation plan. The Centre had claimed that it intends to achieve Rs 2.5 trillion investment with the plan. The role of PSUs has largely diminished in India since the economy opened up in the 90s.