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Updated: Jul 24, 2019 17:49 IST

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to corporatise and privatise the country’s 41 ordnance factories under the Kolkata-headquartered Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

Her move came five days after the matter came up for discussion at a high-level meeting called by the Centre in Delhi. “No formal notice or order has been issued in this regard. However, the matter was discussed at the highest level on July 18. OFB chairman Saurabh Kumar was present at the meeting,” a top OFB official said on condition of anonymity.

In a letter to Modi on Tuesday, Banerjee wrote, “OFB is the world’s largest government set-up for manufacturing arms and ammunition for a country’s armed forces. I am shocked and surprised to know that this vital pillar of the country’s defence and this key industrial initiative is now being contemplated to be subjected to a sudden exercise of de-governmentisation for which there has been not even an iota of stakeholders’ consultations till now.”

Saying that the Bengal government never got an inkling of the proposed move, Banerjee wrote, “I would therefore request you to kindly stall and reverse this process.”

The state unit of the BJP was quick to hit back at Banerjee and asked her to stop interfering.

“Banerjee’s appeal is a reflection of her own industrial policy which discourages any efficiency building exercise. Bengal is the example. The Centre wants to modernise defence production. She should stop interfering in domains that she does not understand,” said Bengal’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice president Jay Prakash Majumdar.

The CPI (M) also opposed the privatization plan and accused the BJP government at the Centre of “killing” national security and indigenous technology.

“For years, the Left parties have been demanding periodic modernisation of the OFB units. Selling stakes is the easy way out. The BJP government, which talks of national security and indigenous technology, is actually killing both,” said CPI (M) Politburo member Md. Salim.

Ever since the Centre enforced Arms Rules 2016, which introduced new laws to facilitate production of weapons by private players in collaboration with foreign partners, a large section of officials and staff in the state-owned ordnance factories were apprehending a similar move to streamline the OFB units. Some major units, including Rifle Factory Ishapore, are located in Bengal. The workers’ unions have staged agitation in many cities, demanding state support.