New Delhi: A day after Congress leader Sonia Gandhi targeted the government over privatisation of Railways, Union railway minister Piyush Goyal hit back saying the Congress party has been adopting double standards on this issue as it was the UPA government that had backed disinvestments and privatisation while the present BJP-led NDA government was only going for corporatisation.
Quoting the former finance minister P. Chidamabaram’s Budget Speech of 2004-05 in which he had said: “Disinvestment and privatisation are useful economic tools. We will selectively employ these tools, consistent with the declared policy,” Mr Goyal said that unlike Congress, the NDA government has plans to improve the functioning of several Railway units.
“We are working towards corporatisation where the ownership remains with the government and we will keep all the shares…The production units that are being corporatised will ensure growth, offer jobs and bring investments,” Mr Goyal said.
Talking on the issue of Modern Coach Factory (MCF) in Mrs Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli, Mr Goyal said that the Congress party had only made announcements and not a single coach was made till 2014 there.
“We made MCF run and 1,422 coaches were made last year and we gave employment to a large number of people," Mr Goyal said.
Mrs Gandhi had on Wednesday during the Zero Hour criticized the Centrefor ‘corporatising’ Indian Railways’ production units including theMCF in Rae Bareli and alleged that such efforts were the ‘first steps’ towards privatisation. The Railway Ministry rebutted her charges claiming that “corporatisation was not privatisation” and that MCF will remain under government control.
