Visakhapatnam: Around 15-20 non-executive employees of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) have started a relay fast at Sea Horse Junction near the port entrance on Tuesday. They are protesting against the government’s move towards privatising the public sector organisation. The Union Finance ministry's Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has recently appointed a committee to sell the government's entire stake of 73.47 per cent in the listed firm.
The members of the union have also decided to go on an indefinite strike from December 6 to stop the strategic sale of the company's equity to private parties. They had already served the strike notice to the management. The DCI Non-Executive Employees’ Union working president P. Venkata Rao said that the union was ready to accept a stake sale of 49 per cent in the company but not beyond that. The private investors may not take the safety measures as their main motive shall be raising profits.
The government should put loss-making PSUs on sale instead of selling profitable organisations. DCI had been earning good profits right from inception. Currently, there is only a shortage of working capital. It is also facing a delay in the refund of the huge amount of Rs 440.7 crore that includes the dues of '167 crore of Sethusamudram project, he said.
However, the DCI has seen a net profit of Rs 22.56 crore for the half year period up to September 30. Profit for the last financial year stood at Rs 7.41 crore, while it was Rs 79.67 crore in 2015-16. The company is one of the top ten dredging companies globally having offices in Kolkata, Haldia, Paradip, Kochi, Chennai, and Mumbai. It has over 1,588 employees, out of which 300 employees are involved in ground work.
