This has been decided at a meeting of the core group of the Committee of Public Sector Trade Unions (CPSTU) held here on November 23, a joint press release issued by the different unions here on Wednesday said.

According to the release, the meeting expressed serious concern at the "Hasty steps being taken by the Government of India to put the entire public sector network in the country on outright sale."

What is being done is to sell the shares of blue chip profit-making public sector units at discounted prices and thus transfer huge national wealth to private and foreign hands, it said

The shares of Gail, VSNL and some others have been sold in foreign market even at prices much lower than the prices in the domestic market, the release said. The members noted that the bill for opening the nationalised insurance sector to both foreign and indigenous private sectors has already been tabled in the parliament. The nationalised banks have also been targetted for outright privatisation through offloading of 51 per cent government stake in them and the infamous Verma panel has already drawn the blueprint for the sell of the so called weaker banks and for the shedding of at least 25 per cent of the banking workforce and impose wage cut.

The Delhi unions will organise massive mobilisation along with the insurance and bank unions to stage demonstration before parliament on November 29, according to the release. Besides imposing mechanism of cross holding of shares between the PSUs, the Government has been "Desperately sucking the profit-making public sector units of their investible surpluses, thus sabotaging their expansion and technological upgradation and weakening them to the heel and making them an easy prey for sale," the release said.

The Government of India, according to the release, has reiterated its resolve not to revive the sick PSUs and its decision to close down 12 sick units and flouted its commitment to BIFR in many other cases. Public sector workers of the sick units have been deprived from the wage revision for long ten years including the enhanced rate of DA. In some cases salaries have not been paid to the employees for the last about one year.

Even after three years of expiry of tenure of the previous wage agreements, the new agreements are not even in sight due to the retrograde guidelines of the department of public enterprises and particularly the stipulation for ten years tenure of wage agreements, the release said.

The CPSTU noted that the so called second generation reform being carried out by the Government aimed at total privatisation of the public sector units, complete deregulation of the financial sector in favour of the foreign capital and demolition of labour rights.