The Hindu : New Delhi News : Kerala MPs meet PM on PSUs' disinvestment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 11, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Kerala MPs meet PM on PSUs' disinvestment

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 10. Cutting across party lines, members of both Houses of Parliament from Kerala met the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday and urged him to roll back the disinvestment of profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the State. They also urged him to ensure that due allocation is made in this year's Union Budget for the State's traditional industries.

Briefing mediapersons later, P. K. Vasudevan Nair of the Communist Party of India said Kerala as it is did not have many PSUs and efforts were being made to disinvest them. The Government, according to the MPs, should stop their disinvestment; particularly Hindustan Newsprint Ltd., Kottayam, which had made a profit of Rs. 9 crores in the last fiscal year.

As for the traditional industries for which the MPs are seeking financial help, the areas identified include coir, cashew, handloom, textiles, khadi, beedi, fishing and tea.

This apart, they have called for speedy implementation of development projects including the Liquified Natural Gas Terminal at Kochi, Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal Project, National Inland Waterway No. 3, Kochi Refineries Power Project besides development of the national highway.

Besides Mr. Nair, those who met the Prime Minister included A. Vijayaraghavan, N. K. Premachandran, P. Karunakaran, K. Suresh Kurup, Sebastian Paul, Varkala Radhakrishnan, T. K. Hamsa, C. S. Sujatha, P. Sathidevi, Chengara Surendran, A. P. Abdullakutty, M. P. Abdussamad Samadani and Lonappan Nambadan.

Many Kerala MPs also met other Ministers with specific requests pertaining to their constituencies. Ms. Sujatha of the CPI(M) submitted a memorandum to the Railway Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, seeking continuation of a stop at Chengannur railway station for two Trivandrum-Jodhpur trains. In another representation to the Railway Minister, Mr. Nambadan sought speedy completion of the construction of two overbridges in Mukundapuram.

The Kerala Congress member, K. Francis George, submitted a memorandum to the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, with the plea that the Government come out with a legislation as per the Supreme Court judgment in the T. M. A. Pai case to streamline the admission and fee structure of self-financing professional colleges.

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