The Hindu : CPI condemns sale of oil majors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 07, 2002

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CPI condemns sale of oil majors

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi Dec. 6. The Communist Party of India has condemned the Vajpayee Government's decision to put up the sale of the public sector oil majors — the HPCL, through bidding by both the domestic and foreign companies and the BPCL through a public issue.

"The three-month cooling-off period has brought forth what had already been decided", the CPI central secretariat said in a statement and warned that the disinvestments in NALCO, which had been put on the hold, would also meet similar fate.

It said the so-called mid-term review, which the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, had spoken about had led to nothing. The party ridiculed the idea of issue of 10 to 20 per cent shares to workers as a "farcical sop" and said the corporate giants in America had resorted to such tricks. Even recent events showed that hundreds of corporates had only swallowed the workers retirement funds through this route.

Terming the decision as a wake-up call for all workers and employees and their organisations, the party said they had to fight with more determination during the `Jail Bharo' programme on January 8 and the march to Parliament on February 26.

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