Dilution of PSUs will hurt common people, alleges Mallikarjun Kharge

Dilution of PSUs by NDA government, as outlined in National Monetization Pipeline, would hurt the common people, benefit a few and ultimately affect reservations in jobs, Mallikarjun Kharge alleged

The dilution of Public Sector Undertakings and other moves by the NDA government, as outlined in the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), would hurt the common people, benefit a few and ultimately affect reservations in jobs, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge alleged on Friday.

The income and education levels of 35 lakh PSU employees have increased over time and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was 'finishing the units off' one after the other, he alleged.

"If PSUs in banking, insurance and railway sectors are finished, ultimately reservation in jobs will also be finished," he told reporters.

Kharge said the Congress, when in power, disinvested only chronically loss-making PSUs or those in non-strategic sectors.

He claimed that the government gets about Rs 3.5 lakh crore profit annually through PSUs and the estimated loss of some PSU firms is about Rs 45,000 crore.

"Whatever we earned, it is taxpayers money... people's assets...public assets. Modi ji is selling (them) one by one," the senior Congress leader said.

Kharge said the Congress has often been accused of doing nothing for 70 years, but asked how then had the public sector come up.

"You are thinking of getting Rs six lakh crore (through NMP). Whose is it?," he asked.

Alleging that the dilution of PSUs and others was not in the interest of people, he said Congress would fight the move. "Congress will try to save all of this," he said.

Pointing out that substantial number of bank accounts under the NDA government's Jan Dhan Yojana were opened in PSU banks and not in private banks, he said this became possible because the then Indira Gandhi government nationalised banks.

Cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru have grown because of large number of PSUs, he said.