Government of India should reconsider the policies of privatization and corporatization of public and government sector undertakings – BMS
New Delhi, 17 November. Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh has demanded the central government to rethink their policies of privatization and corporatization of the public sector. It has demanded to rethink the division of the public sector in core and non-core sectors, corporatization of defence and railway under the name of commercialization, and widespread contractualisation in various forms and names. BMS strongly feels that these policies are one-sided policies and cannot give the expected results even in the long run.
On the call of the meeting of the National Working Committee in February 2022 and under the banner of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, central government employees and public sector workers organised a huge one-day demonstration at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, on 17 November 2022 in which thousands of workers participated.
Workers of uranium mines, coal mines, defence organisations like DRDO, ordnance factories, and railway zones participated. The demonstration was officially inaugurated by BMS National General Secretary Shri Ravindra Himte.
BMS National Union Minister Shri B. Surendran informed that before the demonstration at Delhi, seven regional conferences were organised in state capitals to awaken the workers in support of the demands. Gate meetings were organised in almost all public sector, government sector and central government establishments. Mega vehicle rallies were organised in some industries like coal and BHEL. Meetings and mashaal rallies were organised at several district headquarters, and a memorandum was submitted to the Hon’ble Prime Minister through the Hon’ble Governor.
In continuation of the phased movement, the 17 November Chalo Delhi programme was organised, in which a huge number of employees of coal, non-coal, defence, post, rail, ports, electricity, electronic, space, telecom, aviation, FCI, banking, and other industries participated.
National General Secretary of BMS, Shri Ravindra Himte, Shri MP Singh, Shri S Mallesham, Shri Ashok Shukla, Shri Surendra Pandey, Shri Girish Arya, Shri Ramnath Ganeshe, Shri DK Pandey, and all general secretaries of all-India federations addressed the rally on the following demands:
- Stop the privatisation of public sector and government enterprises.
- Sick industries should be revived.
- Stop corporatisation in defence and railways.
- Stop mergers of banks and privatisation of insurance companies.
- Stop commercial mining for coal blocks.
- Start the process of filling vacancies of permanent workers in the public and government sector.
- Regularise contract workers working in the public sector and government institutions.
In the meantime, a delegation of BMS under the leadership of the National General Secretary Shri Ravindra Himte met the Hon’ble Defense Minister, Government of India, Shri Rajnath Singh and the Hon’ble Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Shri Mahendra Nath Pandey and handed over the memorandum of the above demands to them.
In the BMS delegation, BMS National Union Minister Shri B Surendran, Vice President Shri S Mallesham (Incharge Oil & Natural Gas), Shri MP Singh (Incharge Defence), Minister Shri Girish Arya (Incharge GENC), Shri Ramnath Ganeshe (Incharge Energy & Shipyard), Shri DK Pandey (Incharge Non-Coal), Industries Incharge Shri Ashok Shukla (Railway), Shri K Lakshmana Reddy (Coal), Shri Mukesh Singh (General Secretary Defence), Shri Mangesh Deshpande (General Secretary Railway), Shri Anant Pal, Mr. Sadhu Singh (General Secretary GENC), R. Bengalrao, Mr. Pawan Kumar (Regional Union Minister) were present.
Hon’ble Defense Minister Shri Rajnath Singh assured recruitment of permanent positions soon. Hon’ble Heavy Industries Minister agreed to pay pending salaries and call a separate meeting of HEL, HMT. The abovementioned ministers assured the delegation of positive resolution of all demands.
At the end of the demonstration, BMS National President Shri Hiranmay Pandya presented closing remarks and thanked the employees who had come from all corners of the country.