A section of citizens will lose their employment reservations in public sector undertakings (PSUs) if it decides to privatise them, the government said on Monday in Lok Sabha.
PSUs Privatization Impact on Reserve Category Employees
The Congress MP Karti Chidambaram asked the union finance minister “whether the proposed privatisation and disinvestment of PSUs, particularly Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) will result in a reduction of reserved posts for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and if so, the details and number of such posts.”
In addition to this, Chidambaram also asked the finance ministry about the details of the “sanctioned reserved posts” for SCs, STs, and OBCs in all Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs).
Further, he also asked about the government’s plan for continuing with these reservations in CPSUs, particularly BPCL, after disinvestment.
In response, the minister of state for finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said that “reservation policy is applicable only in government companies” and since post disinvestment, a company ceases to be a government subsidiary, the reservation policy will not apply.
Further adding, “Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) being the nodal department for disinvestment matters has informed that the reservation policy is applicable only in government companies and after strategic disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), it will not remain a government company,”.
Answering to the total figures of people from reserved categories who work in CPSUs, the minister said among the 919,479 employees in CPSUs, nearly 160,384 come from scheduled caste backgrounds and account for over 17% of the total employees.
Over 99,693 employees are from scheduled tribe backgrounds, which accounts for over 10% of total employees.
Besides these two categories, 198,581 employees belong to the OBC category in the CPSUs.
In total, these reserved category employees form 49.8% of the total employees in CPSUs.
Focus On Privatization
The present government has been focusing on the principle of privatisation with a resolve of “minimum government and maximum governance.”
An elaborate roadmap for privatisation of PSUs in this fiscal year was announced by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on February 1, 2021.
During her budget speech, she said, “In spite of Covid-19, we have kept working towards strategic disinvestment. A number of transactions namely BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam limited among others would be completed in 2021-22,”.
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