GUWAHATI, Oct 9 - The Congress today slammed the move to privatise several companies and questioned the logic behind handing over profit making PSUs to corporate houses.
Referring to the recent decision of a committee to privatise entities like BPCL, NEEPCO etc., Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia said as NRL is a part of BPCL, privatisation of the oil and gas company would have an impact on the State�s interests and resources.
�BPCL was given the honour of a Maharatna company in 2017 and in the last 17 years it has been ranked among the top 500 companies in the world. BPCL has been recording profits of Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore in the last five years. In such a situation, it is hard to understand the logic behind the government�s decision to sell its 53.3 per cent share in the company,� Saikia said.
He also hit out at the government for ignoring the recommendations of a central committee and preparing to hand over the LGBI airport to Adani Group. �Crores of public money was spent on upgrading the LGBI airport. And now after hiking the passenger taxes, the government is handing over the airport to Adani Group,� Saikia said.
Saikia also said that the move to privatise NEEPCO, in which 95 per cent of the employees are from Northeast, would be detrimental to the interests of the region. The Congress leader also said that of the 45 undertakings of the Assam government, only two are profit making. �The State government has done little to revive these sick units,� he said.
