Zarda & heavy electricals: What is the connection?

NEW DELHI: What is a man from a zarda business group doing in the BHEL board — was a comrade’s poser to prime minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. The Prime Minister, who recently called for induction of independent directors in Public Sector Enterprises boards, maintained that such appointees should be acquainted with the problems of the concerned industry.

The matter came up when CPM polit bureau member and Citu president M K Pandhe asked Mr Singh how the involvement of a zarda manufacturer as independent director of Bhel would benefit the leading capital goods industry.

Mr Singh apparently assured the Left leader that he would look into the matter. The prime minister’s plea for induction of independent directors in PSE boards to ensure “greater efficiency and effectiveness” in decision-making process of PSEs has come under sharp criticism from the CPM’s trade union wing.

A day after Mr Singh’s address at the conference of chief executives of PSEs, Mr Pandhe had issued a statement dubbing the induction of independent directors as backdoor entry of private sector and demanded elected representatives of workers in the PSE boards.

Citu had also asked the prime minister to go through the names of independent directors in PSEs to find out how such people with “clear conflict of interest” were inducted even in the board of Navratna PSEs, including BHEL. The prime minister did say attention should be paid to ensure that independent directors are “truly independent professionals”.

Mr Pandhe on Monday raised the issue with the prime minister himself on the sidelines of a meeting of a delegation of the committee of public sector trade unions (CPSTU) with a list of demands for public sector workers.

The demands included filling up vacancies in PSUs through fresh recruitment, wage revision for employees of sick PSUs and financial and policy support for their revival and an annual increment system as percentage of basic pay to be calculated cumulatively every year.

The CPM leader also expressed concern about fringe benefits being taxed and told the prime minister that even unskilled workers were paying such taxes.