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NDA meet on Nalco divestment likely

Aditi Phadnis in New Delhi

A meeting of the National Democratic Alliance is likely to be convened on the approaches to divestment after NDA convenor George Fernandes returns from a foreign trip on September 23.

The government has come under pressure to clarify its stand on divestment with the opposition parties joining hands in Orissa to stall disinvestment of the profit-making National Aluminium Company.

Orissa Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal leader Navin Patnaik has opposed Nalco divestment. The Congress is opposed to divestment in the profit-making public sector undertakings.

Arjun Charan Sethi, Union water resources minister and a Patnaik confidant, is calling on ministers to apprise them of political problems in selling Nalco. He met Union human resource minister Murli Manohar Joshi here today.

The BJD is putting pressure on the NDA to clarify its divestment policy. The issue has been taken up by several Bharatiya Janata Party ministers as well.

The ginger group in the government believes that the problem is not so much with the divestment, but the growing impression that the government is keen to widen economic opportunities only for the already prosperous ones.

"The Nalco divestment is a case in point," said a Union Cabinet minister.

Not only is the company profit-making, employees will also be seriously hit if the company is privatised. Though this has not happened in case of Balco, there is nothing to prevent the private sector owners from retrenching employees to maximise profits. The government has to address to the problem of employment if it is going to continue divestment," the minister said.

The Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh has decided to launch a one-week agitation in Uttar Pradesh by the month end against the government's divestment policy.

Several ministers expect that the government will be under great pressure in the next session of Parliament.

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