Employees ask PM Modi to stop sale of Kamarajar Port

The employees of Kamarajar Port sent out an SOS to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, urging his intervention against the sale of the port.

The plea was made in a letter written by the port's officers' union, in response to media reports that the government had decided to go ahead with the strategic sale of the Rs 20,000 Crores worth port, and expressed the discontent of the employees on the decision and asked for a reconsideration on the issue.

The employees in the letter called the port in Tamil Nadu, as the lifeline of the state, which began operations in 2001 under the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government.

But the administration has made a major push for disinvestment of government companies and has been setting ambitious targets for the same every year. The government is planning to achieve this through either complete sale of its stake in its companies or through lowering of the stake that it owns in them.

This is seen as an effort to bring down the government expenditure and a move towards fiscal prudence.

The port's officers' union, which sent the letter though feels that the sale of Kamarjar Port Limited does not help in this aspect as has it not only been profit making but, has also not received any grant from the government of India.

The letter added, that "the financial position of the company is excellent and debt free. Hence, there is no need to sell the Government's stake to private parties." It added that in the last five years, KPL has paid more than Rs 1000 crores to the central exchequer.

The port has a hundred direct employees and officers along with 15000 indirect employees. The letter also invoked the "Make in India" push of the prime minister and hoped that the fate of the employees who have helped run the profit making port in the hands of the private parties.

OneIndia News