Opposition hits out at govt on equity reduction in banks

Opposition hits out at govt on equity reduction in banks
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, NOV 23: Opposition members in the Lok Sabha today hit out at the Government on the proposed reduction of its equity in nationalised banks to 33 per cent saying the intention was to ``privatise'' the banking sector.

The issue was raised during the zero hour by CPI-M member Lakshman Seth, who said ``privatisation'' of the public sector banks would hurt the development activities as private banks would not allow as much money to be ploughed back for building infrastructure.

At this, Mahajan said, ``The Government wants to tell the House that it has no plans to privatise any nationalised bank.''

To a query whether the Government was not planning to reduce its equity to 33 per cent in banks, he said, ``We will have a discussion when the bill comes.''

Mahajan's remarks agitated opposition members, including Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) And P R Dasmunsi (Cong), who accused him of ``misleading'' the House on the privatisation move.

Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed told the agitated members that they should not disturb the proceeding and were at liberty to move a privilege motion against the Minister if they felt that he was misleading the House.

E Ahmed (Muslim League) accused the Government of being insensitive to the problems of four million Indian based in Gulf countries and said Indian Airlines and Air India were exploiting them by charging higher fares.

Vaiko (MDMK) demanded that the Centre should immediately intervene to halt proposed import of match boxes under a WTO agreement saying that the move would affect eight lakh families in Tamil Nadu. He also wanted protection of the labour intensive matchindustry as a move was afoot by big companies to mechanise the sector.

Salkhan Murmu (BJP) demanded that Santhali language be declared the official language of Jharkhand state and included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.