THE union cabinet decided to completely privatise the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) at its meeting on November 2. Subsequently, the government formed an inter-ministerial group on November 22 to speed up the privatisation process. CITU general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Tapan Sen wrote a letter to the prime minister on the same day, opposing the privatisation of the DCI. On December 4, a permanent employee of the corporation, N Venkatesh, committed suicide near Vizianagram in Andhra Pradesh.