Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
The Union Cabinet on 9th March 2022 approved setting up of the National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC) as a wholly owned Government of India company.
NLMC will undertake monetization of surplus land and building assets of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and other Government agencies. It will also advise and assist in monetisation of surplus and non-core assets, as can be seen from the objectives informed by the Minister of State, Ministry of Finance to the Lok Sabha on 29th March 2022.
“NLMC has the following objectives:
- To undertake professional and orderly monetization of land and other non-core assets referred to it.
- To own, hold, manage and monetize land and building assets of CPSEs under closure and surplus land and buildings of 100% GoI owned CPSEs under strategic disinvestment.
- To advise and support monetization of surplus land assets of i. Demerged companies holding surplus land ii. Other CPSEs
- To advise and assist government departments, statutory bodies / authorities, autonomous bodies, corporations, etc. on monetisation of surplus and under-utilized non-core assets.
- To identify surplus land and building assets to create an inventory for monetization in consultation with CPSEs / other government agencies.
- To build a capable organisation with skill and competencies to enable speedier and efficient monetisation which can generate maximum value from government assets.
- To act as a repository of best practices in land monetization, assist and provide expert technical advice to DPE / DIPAM /Government of India in implementation of asset monetisation program.”
The inclusion of non-core assets has made the scope of the NLMC very broad. What is non-core will be decided by the central government. In case of railways, we have seen how the definition of non-core has been changed over the years. Even running passenger and freight trains is not a core activity for the Indian Railways now!
Despite the strong opposition of crores of our people, the Government of India is heedlessly going ahead with the anti-worker, anti-people, anti-social and anti-national program of privatization. Assets for carrying out both ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ activities have been built with people’s money. They cannot be handed over for earning private profit.