Call for stir opposing Centre's move to privatise railways in Tirupati

Tirupati: The trade unions have announced nationwide agitation against Central government's move to privatise Indian Railways and to protect labour laws and public sector undertakings.

Addressing the huge dharna in front of Tirupati Railway Station on Friday, the State Vice-President of CITU V Umamaheswar Rao has said that they will stage protests across the State on July 29 and organise demonstrations on August 2 across the country by ten trade unions. Agitation will be intensified in a phased manner.

He strongly criticised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been trying to handover various Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs) to corporate companies and there is a danger of losing 48 PSUs which were responsible for creating wealth in the country. He gave a call to people to get ready for another freedom movement.

AITUC district General Secretary P Murali has said that the Centre has been conspiring to handover Indian Railways to Ambanis and Adanis through which people will lose the opportunity of travelling at lower cost from one place to another. INTUC district President L Rathna Kumar has demanded the withdrawal of 100-day action plan to privatise Railways.

Railway Employees Union leaders Sudarsan Raju (SCRMU), KBK Raju (SCRES) and Sekhar (AILRS) have decried the move of the government to put Railways on sale which has been providing employment to crores of people and fetching the government lakhs of crores of rupees revenue.

CITU District General Secretary K Murali led the protest in which TTD employees union leader M Nagarjuna, Agricultural labourers union leader Chinnam Penchalaiah; T Subramanyam, (CPM); N Chandrasekhar Reddy, R Lakshmi and M Narayana Babu (CITU); Sriramulu, Govinda Swamy, KY Raja and SK Basha (AITUC); Narsimha Prasad, Anusha and Sreenivasulu (INTUC); DYFI District Secretary S Jayachandra, AIDWA District Secretary P Sai Lakshmi and others also spoke.