Govt not in a hurry to sell Jessop: Shourie

kolkata: union minister for disinvestment arun shourie has said the government is not in a hurry to sell jessop, and is making last ditch efforts to revive the sick company through privatisation. shourie, in a letter to dipankar mukherjee, the cpi-m rajya sabha member, said the government would like to expedite the revival of the company as early as possible. mukherjee had accused the centre of "trying to sell off the company in a hurry". the minister said since jessop was a sick company under the purview of bifr, the proposal of the government to induct strategic partner in the company would require the approval of the bifr. the government, he said, would submit necessary proposal in this regard shortly to bifr for its examination and approval. shourie said the government had sancationed the financial restructuring in jessop involving rs 70 crore besides granting interest holiday and moratorium for payment of loans in 1986. jessop, he said, was referred to bifr which had sanctioned a revival scheme in may 1998. the government had provided fresh funds to the tune of rs 54 crore as also rs 242 crore by way of write-offs, waivers, conversion of loan into equity, counter-guarantee etc as per the revival scheme. he said that in spite of the concessions, the company could not be revived and the bifr had asked the operating agency to explore the possibility of changing the management. pti