BJP Odisha Unit Stages Demonstration against NALCO Disinvestment in Angul

Bhubaneswar: The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday staged demonstration against the Union Government’s decision to disinvest 12.25 per cent of the Government’s shares from National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO), the only central public sector undertaking (PSU) in the State at NALCO’s smelter plant at Angul and warned the Centre to revoke the decision else the party would intensify protests in coming days.

The BJP also urged the Odisha government to convene a special session of the state assembly to discuss the central government’s decision to bring down its stake in the aluminium company NALCO.

“We want the government to convene a special session of the state assembly urgently to discuss the matter,” former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Rudra Narayan Pany said.

Hundreds of workers and leaders of the party carried out a march shouting slogans against the central government and urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to call an all party meeting as people in the state are “emotionally” attached to NALCO.

It is noteworthy to mention that earlier, the ruling BJD had staged similar demonstrations at NALCO’s refinery and mining site at Damanjodi in Koraput, its smelter plant at Angul and the company’s corporate office in Bhubaneswar on September 24, 26 and 28 respectively.

Earlier Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also criticised the decision on September 14 after the center decided to reduce its stake in NALCO and three other PSUs — Hindustan Copper, Oil India and MMTC.

Source: 360 NS