R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, JUNE 25
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has made a direct appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to halt the Centre’s proposed further stake sale in NLC India Ltd, arguing that the Neyveli-headquartered public sector enterprise is not merely a listed company but a strategic national asset with deep economic, industrial and social roots in Tamil Nadu.
நெய்வேலி பழுப்பு நிலக்கரி நிறுவனத்தில் இந்திய அரசின் பங்குகளை விற்பனை செய்ய முடிவு செய்திருப்பதை மறுபரிசீலனை செய்யக்கோரி மாண்புமிகு இந்தியப் பிரதமர் திரு. நரேந்திர மோடி அவர்களுக்கு மாண்புமிகு தமிழ்நாடு முதலமைச்சர் திரு. ச. ஜோசப் விஜய் அவர்கள் எழுதியுள்ள கடிதம்#CMJosephVijay pic.twitter.com/epcyZUZMYS
— CMOTamilNadu (@CMOTamilnadu) June 25, 2026
In a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister, Vijay expressed “deep concern” over the Union government’s decision to divest up to 3 per cent of its equity in NLC India through an Offer for Sale (OFS) — structured as a 2 per cent base offer with a 1 per cent greenshoe option. The OFS, announced earlier this month at a floor price of ₹303 per share, was expected to mobilise about ₹840 crore through the base sale and as much as ₹1,260 crore if the full greenshoe option was exercised. The issue, in fact, drew strong investor interest, prompting the Centre to exercise the full 1 per cent greenshoe option. (mint)
- Chief Minister urges Prime Minister to reconsider 3% NLC India OFS, calling the Neyveli-based PSU a strategic national asset inseparable from Tamil Nadu’s industrial, energy and social landscape
- Plea comes after Centre moved to divest up to 3% in NLC India through an Offer for Sale at a floor price of ₹303 a share, with the issue size estimated at about ₹1,260 crore if the greenshoe option is fully exercised
- Vijay says the issue goes beyond a routine disinvestment exercise, warning that any further dilution in a strategically significant PSU could weaken public ownership and ignore Tamil Nadu’s historic stake in the enterprise
- The intervention adds a fresh political-economy dimension to the Centre’s FY27 disinvestment drive, under which minority stake sales in PSUs have already been used to raise thousands of crores
Bringing the State’s economic and political claim over NLC to the forefront, Vijay told the Prime Minister that Tamil Nadu was firmly opposed to any further dilution of the Centre’s stake in the Navratna PSU. He stressed that NLC occupies a unique place in the State’s development history, with its major lignite mines — Mine I, Mine IA and Mine II — and pit-head thermal power stations located in Neyveli, where the company is headquartered.
The Chief Minister underlined that the PSU’s growth had been enabled over decades through land acquisition by the State government, infrastructure support, rehabilitation efforts and the cooperation of local communities, giving Tamil Nadu what he described as a legitimate and enduring stake in the future of the enterprise.
Vijay’s objection is significant not only politically but economically. The Centre’s NLC stake sale forms part of its broader FY27 disinvestment programme, under which it has also sold stakes in other public sector companies such as NHPC, Coal India and Central Bank of India. The NLC OFS itself was launched as a market transaction to monetise a small portion of the government’s holding while retaining majority control. (mint)
But Vijay has argued that NLC cannot be viewed through a narrow fiscal lens. In his communication to Modi, he said the PSU plays a critical role in energy security, mineral development and strategic infrastructure, and warned that even a limited reduction in the Government of India’s holding would set an undesirable precedent in relation to public ownership of strategically important enterprises.
He further cautioned that the matter had implications far beyond balance-sheet considerations, touching the long-term interests of Tamil Nadu, its people and the country’s energy security architecture. Public sector enterprises such as NLC India, he said, which were built and expanded with sustained support from host States, should remain firmly under effective government ownership and control.
The letter, in effect, reframes the NLC disinvestment debate from one of capital-market fundraising to one of federal economic rights, public ownership and strategic control over natural-resource-linked infrastructure. It also signals that Tamil Nadu intends to resist any move that could gradually weaken the public-sector character of an enterprise so closely tied to the State’s industrial geography.
By urging Modi to revisit the OFS decision, Vijay has sought to elevate NLC from a routine disinvestment file to a test case in Centre-State economic relations — one in which the State is asserting that history, land, labour and regional development give it a moral and political stake in the future of one of India’s most important lignite and power PSUs.
