Bhubaneswar, April 11: The Orissa government has initiated process for closure of the 33 defunct public sector undertakings (PSUs).
“We have started taking steps to close down 33 defunct units. Some of them are under liquidation process,” said a senior official of the State Public Enterprises department.
Out of the 33 non-working PSUs, 20 have gone into liquidation process. Eleven of these units are under liquidation through court order, while the rest nine are under the process of voluntary winding up.
“The government may take a decision regarding winding up of the remaining 13 non-working company,” the CAG report for 2009-10 had stated while recommending for setting up a cell to expedite the closure process.
“The non-working PSUs are required to be closed down as their existence is not going to serve any purpose,” observed the CAG in its report.
The CAG also suggested the government to adopt the process of voluntary winding up under the Companies Act which is “much faster”.
Way back in August 1996, the Orissa cabinet had accepted recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee for disinvestments/privatisation, liquidation or restructuring of the sick PSUs.
The private investors, however, did not evince much interest, for which little progress was made in this direction.
Subsequently, a public sector reform programme was launched in Orissa in 1999-2000 and a task force was constituted on October 10, 2000, for formulating a clear policy framework.
In pursuance of the public sector reform programme, four PSUs — IDCOL Cement, IDCOL Rolling Mills, Hirakud industrial Works and ORICHEM — were privatised through disinvestment of shares.
Assets of a few PSUs, including IDCOL Piping and Engineering Works and SN Corporation, were sold.
Orissa State Textile Corporation, Orissa State Electronic Development Corporation, Orissa State Commercial Transport Corporation, New Mayurbhanj Textiles, Orissa State Handloom Development Corporation, Onssa Instruments Copporation, Orissa Leather Corporation and a few other sick PSUs were closed.
On other hand, some public sector units such as, Orissa Cashew Development Corporation, Orissa Forest Development Corporation, Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation, Orissa Construction Corporation, Orissa Bridge Construction Corporation and Orissa State Finance Corporation, were under restructuring process.
Under the Orissa Public Enterprise Reforms Programme, a total of 35,494 employees and workers of various state government undertakings and cooperative enterprises had retired under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and voluntary separation scheme (VSS), said one of sources in the State Public Enterprises department.
As part of the public enterprise reform programme, Project Rohini was launched to provide counselling and retraining to those retired under VRS and VSS.
Moreover, as many as 9,811 workers have been redeployed under the Social Safety Net Programme. Some workers have also been offered alternative sources of livelihood.
The Orissa government has also set up the Orissa State Renewal Fund Society with a corpus of Rs 50 crore to further objectives of the Public Enterprise Reform Programme.
