Several Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) employees and union employees expressed their unhappiness and protested against the central government’s decision to go with its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in various parts of the country on Wednesday. With this, India aims for its largest IPO ever.
Employees of the LIC went on strike from 11 am to 1 pm in Ahmedabad. They said that privatising LIC would put an end to it. The IPO offering essentially will make put of the Public Sector Unit (PSU) in private hands.
Various organisations including the All India Insurance Employees Association, and DMK Trade union sit on a dharna to protest against the same in Chennai, Tamilnadu.
“Govt is doing this to benefit some private players. We’ll continue to protest against it,” said DMK MP TKS Elangovan, during a protest in Tamil Nadu.
The IPO of LIC opened for public subscription on Wednesday morning, and around one-third of the shares were subscribed in the first two hours.
Policyholders and employees are driving the subscriptions. The policyholders’ portion was fully subscribed just within a couple of hours of the opening of the public subscription of the country’s largest IPO.
At around 12.25 pm, the policyholders’ portion was subscribed 1.05 times. Over 50 percent of the shares reserved for employees were subscribed by 12.25 pm while around 33 percent of the retail portion was subscribed.
The People’s Commission on Public sector and Public Services (PCPSPS) on Monday alleged that the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will result in a loss of over 50, 000 crore. It also alleged that the LIC’s IPO will result in a loss of over 50, 000 crore.
Expressing concern over the rush by the Union Government, the commission demanded the halt of the alleged scandalous IPO. It alleged that apart from the loss of thousands of crores, the IPO is based on the expropriation of millions of policyholders of the LIC.
With inputs from Agencies.
