'TN govt should have remained firm against NLC stake sale'

A week after endorsing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's offer to buy the five per cent NLC shares the Centre proposed to disinvest, DMK president M Karunanidhi today said the state government should have remained firm against the stake sale in order to pressure the Centre to drop its move to sell the shares.
He said a similar situation had come up in 2006 when the Centre proposed a 10 per cent stake sale, prompting a strike by NLC employees.
He had conveyed to the Centre about his party mulling reconsidering its continuance in the UPA government following which the Centre had declared suspending the proposal, he said in a letter to partymen.

The DMK chief said Jayalalithaa had initially written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arguing against the stake sale, later only to pitch for the shares to be allotted to her government.
"I had later written to the Prime Minister seeking to drop the (decision) to sell five per cent share by exempting NLC (from SEBI guidelines of public shareholding) or as a last resort, that five per cent shares may be sold to Government of Tamil Nadu institutions and consider them as public shares," he said.
SEBI had subsequently okayed the state government proposal, he said.
"Had the Tamil Nadu government remained firm on its initial demand to not to sell the shares to anyone, and with pressure due to indefinite fast by workers, Centre could have exempted NLC and withdrawn its decision like it did in 2006.

Instead, (state) government has gone in line with SEBI's original decision to sell the shares," he said.