Ironically, Sinha's comments came just a day after the full TelecomCommission, which includes finance secretary Piyush Mankad, cleared theproposal to give free phones to the 3.2 lakh employees of the Department ofTelecommunications (DoT) and the Department of Telecom Services (DTS).

After a meeting of the National Telecom Advisory Committee, Paswan stuck tohis stance that the issue and costs were blown out of proportion, and themove was to boost the morale of the employees, especially in the context ofcorporatisation of DTS in the next six months.

It was argued that free telephone facilities, being availed of by class Iand II employees, were now being extended to class III and IV employees. Anagenda paper of the National Telecom Advisory Committee said that MTNL hadrecently decided to grant a service telephone facility to its workingemployees, and the proposed move would provide a parity between MTNL and DTSemployees.

The paper said the issue was discussed between the minister and variousfederations and, if not implemented, these could have an effect onindustrial peace.

Finance minister Yashwant Sinha has expressed confidence about meeting thedisinvestment target of Rs 10,000 crore in the current fiscal, even as thedepartment of disinvestment said on Wednesday that the target would not beachieved unless the Government cleared more units for sale.

"My assessment is that we will definitely do better this year on thedisinvestment front," Sinha told The Financial Express. "I don't seeany reason why there should be despondency, or dismay on this front", Sinhasaid.

He, however, refused to comment specifically on disinvestment departmentsecretary Pradeep Baijal's comments in an interaction with PTI journalists.According to Sinha, the whole process was in a disarray due to the loss ofvote of confidence by the Government. "This year, we stand a much brighterchance of achieving the divestment target, because we have started takingdecisions," added Sinha. Sinha said the cabinet committee on disinvestment,in its June 23 meeting, would look at a road map in this regard.

He said there was no "massive difference of opinion" on disinvestment withinthe Government. "There may be certain differences on certain issues. That iswhy we have to sit together and find solutions in specific cases," Sinhaadded.

On the divestment of the Indian Petrochemicals Corporation, the financeminister said only one bidder was left now, and that it might create amonopoly situation. "The Government has to take all the factors intoaccount. No Government can say we will strengthen the monopoly situationthrough disinvestment," said Sinha.