Wires Crossed

SEVEN years ago, over 1,000 employees working with the Punjab Wireless Systems Limited PSIDC, could have never dreamt that a Rs 500-crore ...

SEVEN years ago, over 1,000 employees working with the Punjab Wireless Systems Limited PSIDC, could have never dreamt that a Rs 500-crore blue chip company paying dividends to shareholders for over 20 years would soon sink because of mismanagement and embezzlement. The CBI is now looking into the case.

The company had once established prestigious communication link between Dakshin Gangotri Antarctica and New Delhi. Its fall was virtually unimaginable as it was listed on all major stock exchanges8212;its share worth Rs 10 was traded at Rs 4678212;and it supplied communication equipment to the Army.

Then it all changed. The company8217;s operations stopped in 1999 and the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered it to wind up. The employees survived on the hope that the company would be revived. Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly Bir Devinder gave them a dream that the machines would start working again but they needed to show a 8216;8216;little patience8217;8217;. Bir Devinder Singh even set up a Core Group a few months ago to work out the revival plan of the company. But nothing has came out of it and the Provisional Liquidator has reached the final stage to dispose the company8217;s property to pay back creditors.

The delay in working out the revival scheme is fatal. It may be too late if the property is put on sale,8217;8217; says B S Baidwan, member Punjab Planning Board, who was given the task of preparing a rehabilitation scheme for the revival of the company.

But he says the problem lies in arranging the working capital about Rs 25 crore8212;the infrastructure of the company is still intact. He submitted the report to the government, its promoter Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation PSIDC and the financial institutions that have a stake in the company. Two months after, no concrete word has come from its promoter, PSIDC.

Meanwhile, Official Liquidator B K L Srivastva has already worked out the modalities to dispose of the property belonging to Punwire. 8216;8216;The company can be revived. There is possibility. But who will invest about Rs 25 crore working capital?8217;8217; asks Srivastva.

Vishwajeet Khanna, Managing Director, PSIDC, however, says that the draft rehabilitation scheme prepared by Baidwan had reached him for examining the viability of the proposal. 8216;8216;We are in the process of submitting the report to the Chairman of the Core Group,8217;8217; he says adding he can not comment till report is placed before the core group.

Bir Devinder Singh says revival is the only viable solution. If the assets of the company are disposed of, employees and institutions would get only Rs 40 crore out of total Rs 180 crore. The unsecured creditors would hardly get anything out of their stake of Rs 450 crore.

CASE FILE
Chipping away 8226; Punwire, once a blue chip company, established a link between Antarctica and Delhi 8226; The firm supplied a communication system to the Indian Army 8226; It shut down in 1999, on charges of mismanagement and embezzlement 8226; The company8217;s properties will soon be sold 8212;but that will fetch only Rs 40 crore of the total Rs 650 crore it owes