Corruption
NH Exclusive: ‘Govt ignoring national security by privatising Dredging Corporation of India’
In exclusive interviews, president of the DCI officers’ association shares his concerns over the government’s move to privatise DCI while MP Vijaysai Reddy gives his five reasons for not selling DCI
Protests against privatisation of the Dredging Corporation began on November 27, confides B H Naik, president of the DCI officers’ association. All employees, executive and non-executive, have been participating in the relay hunger strike. There is uncertainty and most employees fear loss of their jobs.
(Access the first part of the story here: NH Exclusive: Dredging Corporation on the chopping block)
BH Naik in conversation with National Herald:
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Why are you opposed to privatisation?
What is the logic? Where is the need or the urgency ? DCI has been doing good work. It has been earning profits after tax for the last 10 years. In fact right from its inception in 1976 it has been a profitable public sector unit.
Why is the central government then in favour of strategic sale of DCI ?
We apprehend external forces are at work. Dredging involves specialised technology and we have painstakingly built up the expertise. DCI is the only public sector unit in the world involved in dredging. We, therefore, suspect private players and even foreign players are interested in taking over DCI for a pittance.
Why do you say national security will be affected by the sale?
We maintain the ports. Dredgers have intimate knowledge of entry and exit points. In Vizag, we have a nuclear submarine being built. Dredgers are equipped with a tracking system now and will have the exact latitude and longtitude with the accuracy of 100 mm. If dredging is privatised, the private player will have access to the data and technology and the details can be misused. That should be our national concern.
Haven’t you apprised the Government of your concerns?
We have. Do we need a foreign player to get involved in dredging? On the one hand the Government is speaking of ‘Make in India’ while on the other hand the Government is hell bent on selling off a profit-making PSU. It makes no sense to us.
The Government claims to be selling DCI to “improve technology and inject experienced professionals”. How would you counter it?
We have the best technology in the country. Globally, we rank sixth. All our 17 Dredgers are made in Holland, each costs around ₹650 Crore and each is equipped with state-of-the-art technology. We actually train people in say places like Dubai in dredging. 70% of the technical staff in Van Oord Dredgers ( an international dredging and offshore contractor) are ex-employees of DCI and were trained by us.
V Vijaysai Reddy(MP): Five reasons why DCI should not be sold
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“I had raised the issue in Parliament and Minister of State for Shipping, Mansukh L Mandaviya replying in the Rajya Sabha said there was no proposal before the Government to privatise Dredging Corporation of India. But now that the Government has formed an inter-ministerial group for the strategic disinvestment of DCI, it is clear that the minister was either misleading the House or was himself misled by his bureaucrats.
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There are at least five reasons why DCI should not be privatised.
- Policy of the Government of India is to privatise loss-making PSUs.
- DCI’s jurisdiction is not confined to commercial ports but extends to defence ports as well.
- Andhra Pradesh stands to lose if the DCI is shifted out of the state after it is sold. DCI pays the state lots in taxes and the private player, we suspect, will be tempted to move the registered headquarters to some other state.
- More than 1500 employees are working with DCI. What will happen to them once it is privatised? Is anyone promising them job security?
- When DCI’s assets are valued at `8,000 crore, what prompted the Government to fix the sale price at `1,500 crore?
I am not surprised at the indifference of the Andhra Pradesh Government. During 1999-2004, when 84 PSUs were privatised in the country, Chandrababu Naidu’s government helped the then NDA government privatise 54 PSUs in Andhra Pradesh alone. That is the way the AP chief minister thinks. Even now he is not taking any step even when employees are agitating and one of them has committed suicide.”
(V Vijaysai reddy is a member of the Rajya Sabha and national general secretary of YSR Congress)
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