EAS Sarma, a former 1965 batch IAS officer who quit as Union Economic Affairs Secretary in 2000, has cautioned the government against privatizing a profit-making PSU like Dredging Corporation of India. Speaking at a roundtable organized by the Forum for Development of North Andhra and People for India, Sarma said that dredging is part of the coastal activity that facilitates the movement of both commercial and naval ships and so its opening up may have national security implications. DCI is a profit making company and there is no necessity for strategic disinvestment of 51%, he added. According to Sarma, the strategic PSU should be strengthened, as it is the only public sector dredging company in India and is also a global player. Aja Sarma of FDNA said it was the government that was responsible for weakening the company. "The government owes a lot of money to DCI. If the money is paid back, the company will do much better," he said. Speakers at the roundtable conference members said the Union government made DCI spend Rs 450 crore in the aborted 'Sethu Samudram' project and it has not reimbursed the amount so far. For the past three years, the government has been conspiring to starve DCI of its work orders by seeing that the orders are bagged by private dredging companies, said Aja Sarma. He disclosed that N. Venkatesh, an employee of DCI, recently ended his life in desperation, as he was apprehensive about his future in the event of privatization. The roundtable urged the government to shelve the proposal immediately. Former bureaucrat C.S. Rao, BL Narayana of PFI and others were present.