Employees of the Life Insurance Corporation of India staged a demonstration in the city on Thursday against the proposed floating of Initial Public Offer (IPO) to sell the government’s stakes in the insurance company .
The IPO offer was announced in the Union Budget and it was also proposed to increase the Foreign Direct Investment from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in the insurance sector.
The employees have expressed concern that this would amount to privatisation of a public sector insurance company and described it as an ‘anti-people’ move.
The LIC employees said the justification offered by the government that it would bring in ‘discipline’ lacked merit and pointed out that many private sector entities in the insurance and banking sector have collapsed in recent times. They also sighted the meltdown in the world economy and the crash of private entities worldwide despite which the public sector institutions in India fared well.
The employees from the Mysuru division representing various trade unions said LIC should continue to remain as a public sector organisation failing which it would have a negative bearing on the commoners who have reposed faith in it.
This will affect the poor and the low to middle income category of people and was against “national interest’’, according to the agitating employees. They cited the contribution of LIC to the economic growth of the country and expressed concern that that disinvestment and floating IPO would be the first step towards privatisation.
