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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, May 21: The disinvestment commission has accused the government of reducing its status to that of an 8220;abandoned baby8221; as neither the industry ministry nor the finance ministry have taken any action on the two reports submitted. Commission sources say that while its third report will be announced next week, the status of its earlier recommendations remained unclear.
While the industry ministry was designated as the administrative ministry to deal with the commission, it was decided that the core group of secretaries will decide on the recommendations of the commission. The core group will take a view on the suggestions and then prepare a note for the cabinet to take a final decision. But the core group has not discussed the commission8217;s reports even once.
The finance ministry, on its part, has kept a studied silence on the commission8217;s recommendations. While Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced in his budget speech on February 28 that the first report of DC has been accepted by the government, there has been no official intimation to the DC about this and there has been little movement towards implementing or even processing the recommendations.
The commission8217;s disenchantment with the government has increased because of this. In fact the relations between industry ministry and the commission have been steadily declining with each viewing the other with suspicion.
Industry Minister Murasoli Maran is understood to be piqued by the suggestion of the commission that the funds generated by the sale of PSU shares be put under the charge of the finance ministry.
While the industry ministry feels that the commission is overstepping its brief of suggesting the sell-off percentage for PSUs, the DC is upset with the way the ministry is ignoring its suggestions and attempting to run a parallel PSU reforms process.
