india

Updated: Aug 28, 2019 10:09 IST

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged on Tuesday that the Modi government wanted to establish a ‘Company Raj’ in the country by privatising the country’s public sector undertakings (PSUs) and handing over the same to its chosen industrialist friends.

A beginning in this regard, she claimed, had been made with the corporatisation of the Rae Bareli’s modern coach factory (MCF) set up under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2006.

She said that having decided to corporatise the Rae Bareli coach factory, the Centre’s next move would be to privatise it.

During her day-long tour of Rae Bareli, Priyanka Gandhi met the factory workers who have been agitating for the last two months against the Centre’s decision to convert the rail coach factory into a corporation.

Earlier in the morning, she went to Lalpur village to meet party MLA Aditi Singh, whose father Akhilesh Singh passed away recently.

Addressing the agitating workers’ gathering at the factory gate, Priyanka said the PSUs had been set up to strengthen the country but the Modi government was destroying them which was not good for the country.

“Railways not only provides jobs to people but also unifies the country,” she said.

Priyanka said the government was breaking the country and making it hollow from within by systematically weakening institutions.

“On the one hand, the country is passing through an economic slowdown with lakhs of employees losing their jobs, on the other hand the government is trying to privatise the rail coach factory that is earning profits and producing coaches more than its capacity,” she pointed out while sharing the dais with trade union leaders.

She alleged that the BJP government was doing it for petty political considerations.

She reminded workers how Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi worked hard to set up the coach factory to boost the economy of the district and create employment opportunities for locals. The then state government, she said, had created hurdles in the way of setting up of the factory.

Later, she headed to the Bhumemau guesthouse where she met people and also held a meeting with local party leaders.