The Navaratnas are alright. But what about the laggards? The government is focussing on the better performers, but there is still no plan of action for the non-performers. Six years after Manmohan Singh spoke of a commitment to restructuring of the public sector in the 1991-92 Union Budget, nothing is being done about any of the sick PSUs in the central sector.

The less said the better about their counterparts in the state sector. The exit policy is not even talked about and the few reformists in the UF government know by now that they cannot rock the boat by making any indiscreet statements about closing down loss-making PSUs both at the central and state levels.

While in respect of central PSUs there are audit reports and there is the parliamentary committee, as for those in different states they operate under cover of total darkness, which is not saying much for the restructuring of public sector generally.

Along with a strategy to give a boost to the Navaratnas, the government must address itself seriously to dealing with those units which guzzle public money without doing anything worthwhile.

The exit policy has to be discussed threadbare and the centre would do well to convene a special meeting of either the National Development Council or the Inter-State Council to formulate a policy for central and state PSUs alike.

Since a decision on such a policy has to be largely political, the sooner a national consensus is forged the better it would be for the reform effort.

The states have got to be bound to a plan that both says no to a proliferation of PSUs and also set in motion a process of liquidation where no worthwhile revamping is possible. The public sector must cease to be notional in terms of performance and the nation must have only the good performers and as for the rest the axe necessarily has to fall on them.

The Disinvestment Commission's role obviously has to be enlarged to include state-level PSUs also. Alternatively, the states must have their own commissions. Way back in 1984, the UF minister of the time, Pranab Mukherjee warned against throwing good money after bad during a discussion on industrial sickness in parliament. But more than a decade later, liquidation is rarely recommended for those units which have been declared sick.

In respect of the public sector, the story is one of a total stand still. This should not go on.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.