Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken on Friday said the Centre’s recently announced national monetization pipeline and the 2016 demonetisation move were “twin children” aimed at “robbing” the people of the country. The NMP, announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on August 23, aims to unlock monetary value in brownfield assets in sectors ranging from roads to railways over a period of four years till the financial year 2025.
Addressing a press conference at Chhattisgarh Congress headquarters Rajiv Bhavan, Maken said, “In the name of development, the Modi government gave birth to twins, one was demonetisation and the other was demonetisation. Both are of the same nature.”
“While demonetisation robbed the poor and small businessmen, now the country’s heritage is being looted through demonetisation,” he said. Both were intended to benefit some capitalists. The most shocking and suspicious part is that it (NMP) was decided secretly and declared suddenly, raising doubts about the intention of the government.
Maken alleged that the main objective of the NMP was to monopolize a few “select industrialist friends”, adding that sectors such as railways, roads, airlines were of strategic importance which “facilitate the movement of defense forces in times of war”. .
Without naming the BJP, the former Union minister asked whether it was “nationalism” to privatize areas of strategic importance and sell items related to national security, directly or indirectly, to foreign powers.
The AICC general secretary also said that the Center is lying by claiming that the ownership of the assets under the NMP will remain with the government.
Maken said the Congress-led UPA government had decided that assets of strategic importance would never be privatized nor would they be allowed to go into the hands of foreign powers in any way.
The Congress leader said that various state governments have given land at concessional rates to public sector undertakings.
“Since land is a state subject, the Center should have taken the state governments into confidence before announcing the NMP. Their (Centre’s) intentions do not seem right.” Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was also present in the press conference.
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