The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Stay unfair: Ministers

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Stay unfair: Ministers

Special Correspondent

Malabar Cements' funds use

Say government not given opportunity to be heard
Move part of steps to make public sector dynamic

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac and Industries Minister Elamaram Karim have questioned the fairness of a High Court stay on the use of excess funds lying with the Malabar Cements for investment in other public sector units.

“The honourable single judge issued the stay on Tuesday [following a petition for the general secretary of an unrecognised union] without giving an opportunity for the government to be heard,” they said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

The Ministers said Malabar Cements was a State public sector company. The government had taken a decision to use the substantial excess funds lying with some of its profit-making companies not only as investment by way of equity in other public sector ventures, but also for providing loans to other promising public sector units, thereby optimising the utility resources.

This decision, announced in the State budget, was part of the measures the government had been adopting for making the public sector dynamic and vibrant. The board of directors of each company had the legal powers to decide how best to utilise the company's resources and how best to develop the manufacturing and business processes by synergising operations with other units.

They said the stay order was tantamount to the court intervening in the decision-making powers of the government.

Mr. Karim described the initiatives the government had been taking to revive the public sector in the State and how successful the efforts had been during the last four years since the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power. The public sector manufacturing units in the State, which had run up a loss of Rs.70 crore in 2005-06, had brought a profit of more than Rs.200 crore in 2009-10. The trends so far this year indicated the possibility of this profit still going up.

The change in mood in Kerala's public sector was due to a multipronged management approach the government had taken and it had come in for praise at the all-India level as a great model, an alternative one to the pro-privatisation policies under the neo-liberal economic philosophy now in vogue at the national level.

Some of the public sector units in the State had now tied up with Central public sector units for becoming more dynamic than they were before.

Successful tie-ups had been built between State public sector units also. Dr. Isaac said the court stay would not be allowed to affect the government's programme to commission eight new units during the current financial year.

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