Alleging that the NDA government is planning to sell around Rs 40,000 crore worth of Central government assets in Telangana, IT and industries minister KT Rama Rao has demanded that the Centre withdraw such plans.
In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Telangana Minister said, “Instead of selling the assets, the Union Government should explore the possibilities of reviving and strengthening the PSUs. If it is not feasible then the State Government should be given an opportunity to set up new industrial units in such lands.”
KTR alleged that the Central Government’s plans to sell these assets was nothing but making a mockery of State Government’s rights.
He alleged that the BJP Government was selling Hindustan Cables Limited, Hindustan Fluorocarbons Limited, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, HMT, Cement Corporation of India Limited (CCI) and Ordinance factories in Telangana as part of its disinvestment plans.
The Minister pointed out that many States, including Tamil Nadu, were strongly opposing the Centre’s moves to sell PSUs set up in their respective territories.
Lashing out at the Central Government for its attempts to sell PSUs in the guise of disinvestment, he sought to know under what provisions or rights, the NDA government was contemplating the sale of PSUs set up in different States.
“It is unfortunate that the Modi Government did not provide job opportunities to the unemployed youth. If the PSUs were reopened, they would provide direct employment to thousands and indirectly millions would be benefited,” KTR said.
The State had allotted about 7,200 acres of land to these six companies. The value of these lands would be about Rs 5,000 crore according to the government rates and as per open market prices, the value could be over Rs.40,000 crore, he claimed.
The State Government had allotted lands to these companies at marginal prices and in a few cases, they were offered for free, since setting up of these units would generate employment to local people, besides facilitating industrial development and when the Telangana government urged the Union Government to allot lands for the construction of Skyways to improve transportation in Hyderabad, the Centre demanded compensation as per market price, he claimed.
“In this context, how can the Central Government sell the lands that were allotted by the State Government for setting up PSUs,” the Minister asked.
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