Disinvestment blues: Shourie meets Advani

NEW DELHI: In a bid to break the virtual deadlock over privatisation programme, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie on Friday met Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani even as his Ministry submitted the option paper to Law Minister Arun Jaitley containing suggestions on the future course of action.
While Shourie did not comment on his meeting with Advani, the entire exercise is a prelude to the ensuing meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment, where the government would decide how to tackle the situation arising out of the Supreme Court judgement on HPCL and BPCL which, government sources feel, has generated fears of more and more court cases about other PSUs.
After meeting Jaitley on Thursday, Shourie had said he would submit an option paper to the Law Minister within a day while adding that many possibilities were being considered by the government including a legal recourse.
Meanwhile, sources associated with the disinvestment process today indicated that Disinvestment Ministry was not seeking a review of the SC judgement but was likely to explore other alternatives to break the current impasse.
"Review is not a good idea as it goes to the same two judges...and they do not even have to hear you...There are several other forms (alternatives) and we are exploring these," sources said.
The SC judgement last week restrained the government from proceeding with disinvestment of HPCL and BPCL without prior approval of Parliament.