Secunderabad: Unions oppose Centre's move to privatise Railways

Secunderabad: Representatives of various labour unions condemned central government efforts to privatise Indian Railways. Opposing the privatisation of Railways, INTUC, CITU and TNGUC stage protest in front of Secunderabad railway station on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, INTUC stage general secretary VS Bose said that great injustice was done to labour classes in the union budget introduced in the Parliament on February 1. He alleged that the central government had been favouring corporate forces by handing over profit-making central government organisations to private organisations. He said that privatisation of public sector companies such as Railways, BSNL, BPCL, Air India and LIC would result severe consequences for common public. He alleged that BJP government was trying to earn crores of rupees by selling public properties. Public enterprises were being systematically destroyed by the union government in order to privatize them, he said.

INTUC national vice president Uma Nagender condemned the central government's efforts to hand over profit making routes to private parties. He warned the government of serious consequences if the Secunderabad railway station, which was constructed with public funds, to private parties for its maintenance. TNGUC state president MK Bose said that labour class had been unhappy over the union budget and had been staging protest across the nation. As part of their demonstrations, massive protests would be staged on March 2 opposing the central government's anti-labour policies, he said.

AITUC state general secretary RD Chandrashekhar, AITUC city general secretary M Narsimha, AITUC state secretary B Venkatesham, city president K Satyanarayana, labour leaders Boddupalli Kishan, R Mallesh, P Venkataiah, Omar Khan, Kumar, Komurelli Babu, Krishnamurthy, CITU leaders Eshwar Rao, Vani and others participated in the protest.