Bharat Aluminium Company was one of the first central PSUs to be privatised. It was handed over to the Vedanta Group in 2,000 as part of the privatisation policy of the government, despite strong protest and strike by the employees. Now Government is having 49% share, but the entire management is only with the Vedanta Group.

Within 15 years, BALCO, which was the pride of the nation has gone down and is in loss. Already thousands of workers have been retrenched. There are still about 1,000 workers, whos future is in peril. The management states that the company is in loss due to non-demand of aluminium products and reduction in international prices.

All the unions in the BALCO has now approached the Prime Minister to help the company so that the workers do not lose their jobs. A detailed petition has been submitted signed by BMS, INTUC, CITU, AITUC and HMS.

Privatisation is not the panacea for all the ills that the PSUs are facing.