New Delhi: In a hurriedly released press statement, the Centre has ruled out privatisation of NALCO, a Navratna PSU, but cleverly avoided the real issue – disinvestment.
While the NALCO workers continue their agitation on the issue of disinvestment and CM Naveen Patnaik too wrote a letter to the PM on the same, the press statement did not even mention the word ‘disinvestment’ once and sought to divert the attention towards a non-issue ‘privatisation’.
The government also digressed from the real issue, saying NALCO would spend Rs. 5540 Crores in modernisation and expansion.
The Central Government, which owned 74.58% stake in Nalco, had sold 9.2% shares in April 2017 to raise Rs 1,200 Crore.
Even, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had set the disinvestment target for the year 2017-18 at Rs 72,500 crore. The government also plans to list three railway sector PSUs during the year. So, disinvestment in Nalco is certainly not ruled out.
Kalinga AI