Rail-factory corporatisation first step towards privatisation: Priyanka

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre for its proposed corporatisation of the rail coach factory in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district, claiming that it would eventually lead to the unit's privatisation.

"The central government wants to mercilessly corporatise the rail coach factory," Priyanka Gandhi said while addressing the Modern Coach Factory employees who are on an agitation against the Union government's recent corporatisation plan.

"What does it mean? It means that after corporatisation, the next step will be giving it to the government's industrialist friends, leading to its privatisation," she told the employees, some of whom were donning black T-shirts with the slogan: 'Revoke corporatisation of MCF'.

Workers in the factory have been staging a protest ever since the Ministry of Railways has envisaged corporatisation of its seven production units and associated workshops under one entity called the Indian Railway Rolling Stock Company.

Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi had raised the issue of corporatisation in the Lok Sabha on July 1, accusing the government of selling the country's assets to private players at a throwaway price.

"The reality is that the BJP wants to bring a new 'company raj', through which factories, PSUs, resources and money of the country are handed over to some selected industrialists," Priyanka Gandhi said. "This is the only basis and thinking behind corporatisation."
"We stand with the movement of employees and workers. The Congress will fight this battle from Parliament to the roads," she tweeted. "This (the factory) has provided jobs to thousands of families. The BJP government, through its corporatisation, is taking the first step towards handing it over to private companies."
"You must be aware of the economic condition. Must have read it in newspapers, though our media friends do not say much," she said. "But I have seen advertisements of mill associations, tea garden associations that we are drowning and save us. Advertisements are being given that the economy is so weak, jobs are going out of hand."
"And it has dawned on the central government that where the factory production is double, corporatise it and privatise it," she said. "You can think what their intention is."
"When this factory was announced in 2007 and the then state government had refused land for it, she (Sonia Gandhi) struggled with the people here for setting up this factory," Priyanka Gandhi said. "She struggled for employment to the people of Rae Bareli and for strengthening the economy here."