PSUs' ace doctor on death bed
Santosh Mohan Dev tells PMO to retire Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises, UPA’s flagship vehicle for PSU revival.
By Radhika Bhalla & Gunjan Pradhan Sinha , TNN |
NEW DELHI: Barely a-year-and-half into being, the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) seems to be on its way out.
According to sources, minister for heavy industries and public sector enterprises Santosh Mohan Dev has written to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) suggesting that the board be wound up.
He has apparently expressed concerns about the functioning of the BRPSE, the flagship vehicle of the UPA government to give a new deal to sick PSUs.
The minister’s missive is in response to a direction from the PMO to expedite the proceedings of the BRPSE. It is believed that at a recent meeting between Santosh Mohan Dev and the cabinet secretary, the minister voiced his worries about the board’s lax performance.
The issue has cropped up as the board is seen to be taking too much time to clear revival proposals for PSUs. There have been delays in clearing the minutes of the meetings of the board, too. “Board members do not agree on what was discussed and decided in the meetings as a result of which the file makes several rounds before it is finalised,” a senior official told ET.
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BRPSE was established in December ’04 to address the revival and restructuring issues of sick public sector enterprises. Government sources said it often takes months before a case is actually taken up by BRPSE for consideration. A case in point is Instrumentation Limited, based at Kota. Even though it is a sick company under the parent department of heavy industry, BRPSE took two months to decide on it, a source said. Moreover, BRPSE has received a lukewarm response from ailing PSUs in other ministries. So far only the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises, the administrative ministry for the BRPSE, has been referring PSUs to the board.
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