Gate Meeting organised against privatization of FSNL
Bhilai, Sep 18: Resentment is on rise among the employees and members of Bhilai Steel fraternity following the government’s decision of disinvestment of Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited. To protest against this decision, a gate meeting was organized recently in front of FSNL Gate by the employees and members of the steel fraternity. All the employees of FSNL took part in the gate meeting.
Speaking on the occasion, SEFI Chairman and BSP-OA President Narendra Kumar Banchhor said that the Apex organization of officers of PSUs has been emphasizing on restructuring and strategic merger, instead of indiscriminate privatization and disinvestment of PSUs.
SEFI President said that the PSUs had an incomparable contribution in the building of the nation, but today, the government is preparing to hand over these precious national assets to private hands in a very arbitrary manner. This step is very harmful for the nation and it will create a situation of bypassing the middle class which is the backbone of the nation.
In the gate meeting, the steel fraternity demanded to stop the privatization of Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited and introduce strategic merger instead of privatization of PSUs.
SEFI President Narendra Kumar Banchhor, OA-BSP General Secretary Parvinder Singh, FSNL Executive Association President Satyendra Kumar Jha, Secretary Deepak Tomar, FSNL Labour Organization Haripratap Singh Tomar, Ashok Kumar, Mohd Tanveer expressed their views and opposed privatization in one voice. They also demanded a strategic merger of steel sector PSUs.
In this sequence, the Executive Association of FSNL will stage a protest against the privatization of FSNL with the support of the OA-BSP team on September 19 from 08.00 am at Equipment Chowk.
It needs to be mentioned here that Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited is a participant in many projects with the PSUs of the steel sector. In the past, a motion was passed to merge this company into SAIL or RINL. But the present Central Government has decided to privatize Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited, which triggered resentment among the employees.
Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited is a government undertaking under the Ministry of Steel, which is in the process of being sold. The entire process of selling to Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd is being conducted by DIPAM. The employee unions are alleging lack of transparency in this entire process. DIPAM had invited expression of interest on 31/03 /2022 and initially the last date for submission of expression of interest was 05 May 2022 but later by changing the terms and conditions, its last date was extended till 17 June 2022. Till date the names of the buyers involved and selected in the expression of interest have not been made public. Such work brings the entire process into doubt.
In the past also, strategic disinvestment of public sector companies like Central Electronics Limited and Pawan Hans Limited was done by DIPAM, but due to irregularities in the sale transaction process, the disinvestment process of these two companies has been postponed and the matter is pending in the court.
