LIC employees in Musuru division staged a protest and abstained from work for 2 hours against the Initial Public Offer (IPO) which was opened for subscription, on Wednesday.
In all, 573 employees spread across Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Madikeri and Hassan spread over 22 branches of LIC, took part in the protest heeding the call of All India Insurance Employees’ Association.
The Association flayed the IPO and said that this was the first step towards privatisation of LIC and the IPO would undermine the foundations and objectives of the insurance behemoth. The union members said LIC had become inseparable from the economy of the country and national development during the last 65 years of its existence and it was difficult to find any sector of the economy which did not have the footprint of LIC.
The Association said LIC has invested in government securities, infrastructure projects and socially oriented schemes to the tune of ₹36 lakh crore and was the single largest investor in the equity market in India. Despite 22 years of competition in the insurance sector, LIC had a market share of over 70 per cent and the IPO of LIC was antithetical to the interests of the millions of policy holders.
The employees expressed feat that the interest and priority of the LIC will shift from that of the policy holders to that of shareholders and will undermine the social commitment of the insurance corporation.
The association flayed the government for going ahead with IPO and said the ‘desperation’ to sell shares of LIC to mop up some resources for meeting the fiscal deficit, is evident. It is equally glaring that the government has drastically reduced the valuation of LIC from the earlier estimates of ₹15 lakh crore to ₹6 lakh crore. This is nothing but a serious breach of trust with the millions of policyholders and citizens who have supported the LIC, the association added.
