DMK wants Tamil Nadu govt to prevent Centre's privatisation bid for Kamarajar Port, Ordnance Factory

Chennai: DMK legislators on Thursday urged the Tamil Nadu government to take steps to prevent the Centre’s reported bid to “privatise” Kamarajar Port and the Ordnance Factory in Tiruchirappalli. [caption id=“attachment_3713281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of E Palaniswamy. PTI[/caption] While S Sudarsanam (Madhavaram MLA) opposed the reported move to privatise Kamarajar Port, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi (Tiruverumbur) urged the government to put pressure on the Centre against privatising the Ordnance Factory. Responding to the port issue, Chief Minister K Palaniswamy said no report has been received either from Kamarajar Port or the shipping ministry. He said only newspaper reports of 19 June had said that the Centre was going in for a “100 percent sale” of its stake in the port. “Steps are being taken to get a detailed report on this issue from the Union shipping ministry,” he said. Industries minister MC Sampath said Niti Aayog had only sent a letter to the management of the Tiruchirappalli based factory to look into the feasibility of a Public-Private Partnership model for it. Based on this, the employees have announced a protest on 27 June against any move to privatise it, he said. However, he assured that the Centre “has not taken any decision,” on privatising the 50-year-old plant. “All steps will be taken” to stop the reported bid to privatise the Tiruchirappalli-based factory. Elaborating, he said it was a “general decision,” of the Centre to go in for either privatisation or Public Private Partnership with regard to loss-making or less profitable PSUs.