CHANDIGARH:The privatisation of the public sector and monetisation of assets are not good for India and disinvestment in public enterprises over the years
has led to the concentration of economic power, a trend that is disturbingly on the rise taking us towards an oligopoly, says a report "Privatisation: An Affront to the Indian Constitution" by Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Public Service headed by Thomas Isaac, former Finance Minister, Kerala and E.A.S. Sarma, former Secretary, Govt of India.
V K Gupta spokesperson All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that the federation has circulated the report to all chief ministers and legislators in the
country. The Union Government led by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is committed to an aggressive push towards privatisation of national assets having a bare minimal presence in “strategic” sectors. it has decided to relinquish control or shut down its companies in all other sectors of the economy.
This agenda of privatising the public sector and alienating public assets could cause certain irreversible and severe damages to the nation’s polity and economy. M.G. Devasahayam in his preface mentions that dismantling public sector and monetising public assets means subjugating our national economic interests, our economic independence and sovereignty to the interests of international finance
capital and corporate entities.It means handing over our national assets, our national wealth to the oligarchs in a silver platter.
The NITI Aayog has proved to be a pale shadow of the Planning Commission. NITI Aayog is nothing but a freewheeling “think tank”In terms of its composition as well as its functioning it has been non transparent and does not allow for a systematic and adequate representation of theinterests of the states of the Indian Union.
Privatisation means the nationalisation of losses and privatisation of profits PPPs are structured such that the state incurs most of the financial burden and the losses, the private partner has free and unhindered access to profits. The pursuit of privatisation shrinks the space for the state to fulfil its constitutional commitment to empowering disadvantaged communities. Contractualisation, an outcome of deregulations and privatisation, puts the workers outside the scope of the laws governing reservation thereby subverting the affirmative action.