Jammu, 02.04.22: All India Confederation of SC/ST/OBC Organisations protested against the privatisation of the public assets by the government of India. All India Confederation called for a nationwide protest and in connection to that, the J&K unit organised a protest rally from Bahu Plaza Jammu to Ambedkar chowk where a memorandum was presented to President of India, Prime Minister of India and LG J&K through District Magistrate, Jammu, J&K.At the Ambedkar Chowk, the statute of BR Ambedkar was garlanded and 2 April 2018 martyrs who sacrificed for strengthening of the SC-ST Atrocity Act were remembered by all those present and candles were lit in their memory.RK Kalsotra, State President Confederation, said that the protest was organised to highlight the cons of privatisation of public assets by the government. According to the empirical data available in the public domain, it would be apposite to say that the downtrodden communities have progressed due to the policies of the government and the employment avenues provided by the state. In contrast to these trends, the government has decided to privatise the public sector units by selling them to private players. There are over a dozen PSUs which have already been privatised and a lot more are under the project of privatisation. The rationale given by the government is that these policies which help in monetisation of the public sector assets. The National Monetisation Pipeline project launched by the government plans to monetise 6 lakh crores over a period of four years. But it is important to note that these policies will also reduce the opportunities for development and growth of the vulnerable sections of the society, be it on the basis of caste or class, Economically weaker sections.Kalsotra added that there were about 348 CPSUs in existence in 2018, with a total investment of ₹16.4 trillion and about 10.3 lakh employees in Central Public Sector Enterprises (in 2019). Push for massive privatization resulting in mass layoffs in a period of low job creation. A greater concentration of public assets in select private hands is also a medium-term concern. About 70% of all profits generated in the corporate sector in FY20 were with just 20 firms. Since the SC/ST/OBC communities are not part of these big firms, they rely on seeking employment, which will get disturbed by privatisation. Such concentration, mixed with the privatization of public assets, is likely to lead to higher usage fees (already being seen in telecom) and inflation, coupled with a loss of strategic control.Moreover, the administration of J&K UT has started to invite private players to the UT. Recently, a Gulf Countries Summit was held at SKICC Kashmir on 22nd March. This will harm the reserved as well as the general category youth and entrepreneurs. There is already a backlog of approximately 1.04 lakh SC/ST/OBC youth in employment. The push for privatisation will only increase the number as there will not be avenues of availing reservations.Reservation in Promotions has been struck down in J&K and we demand that it should be restored retrospectively from 2015. Reservation in Promotions is being availed by other Indian citizens. It is a humble submission that it should be restored immediately.Through the memorandum, it was demanded that President of India advises Honourable PM and LG of J&K to put halt on privatisation or include provisions of saving constitutional rights of vulnerable sections.Those who spoke were Dina Nath, Amar Nath Bhagat, Roshan Ch, S. Taranjir Singh Tony, Pushpa Devi, Aya Singh, Suraj Parkash, Ashraf Ali, Kuldeep Kumar, Mohd Ab Ch, Mohinder Kumar Ashok Kumar, Kuldeep Gaddi, Janak Raj, Dya Ram, Vijay Bhagat, Mushtaq Kadri, Ramesh Sarnal, kuldeep Singh Missionery, Bansi Lal Bhagat, Chuni Mangotra, Mohd Umar, Jang Bhadur and many others.