New Delhi, Jan 28: Members of the Disinvestment Commission may recommend the winding up of the panel after the submission of its sixth and last report some time in April.According to highly-placed sources, the commission will have virtually no work after submitting its sixth report which will cover eight to nine public sector undertakings.
The commission, according to a recent notification, has been divested of its powers to recommend broad policy measures and monitor the process of disinvestment.
The commission was set up in August 1996 for a period of three years to facilitate the disinvestment programme of the government and lend credibility to the whole process. As per the notification issued on August 23, 1996, the commission was to exist till August 1999. However, in view of the recent decision of the government to curtail the powers of the commission, the panel, which comprises chairman GV Ramakrishna and part-time members Dipankar Basu (former chairman of the State Bank of India), RajenderSingh (former chairman of NTPC), Suresh Tendulkar (eminent economist) and DM Nanjundappa (a renowned planner), will have no work after April.
Commission chief Ramakrishna, who was away in Chennai when the ministry notification was issued, said that he had "no comments to make" on the commission's reduced mandate.
The industry ministry notification curtailing its terms of reference will be placed before the commission which is scheduled to meet in mid-February. During the meeting, the commission members will decide on what should be done within the reduced parameters under which the panel will now have to function. The industry ministry's decision is seen as untimely as the commission had already completed a major part of the exercise assigned to it with regard to drawing up a comprehensive long-term strategy for disinvestment of public sector shares in a credible manner.
The last report, on which the commission is currently working, will not be affected much by the changes, as it concerns only a fewlesser known public sector units.Questions are being raised on whether it was appropriate for the outgoing government to come down heavily on the Disinvestment Commission since it had been set up in pursuance of the Common Minimum Programme of the United Front government. Even the Congress party, in its manifesto released recently, had committed itself to implementing the recommendations of the commission.
The Congress has, in fact, criticised the United Front government for not implementing the suggestions of the commission. Whatever might have been the motivations of the industry ministry in seeking to clip the wings of the commission, sources said that the ministry could not have selected a better panel for suggesting ways for offloading shares of the public sector undertakings. Although the recommendations and remarks of the commission had caused embarrassment to the government, the commission did what it thought best and the intention was not to please the officials, sources said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
