Spotlight

New Delhi, 3 March 2007

EFFORTS TO REDUCE INDUSTRIAL SICKNESS

NEW DELHI, March 4 (INFA): The Board of Industrial Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) of the Union Government had received between May 1987 and September as many as 6,991 references under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provision) Act (SICA) 1985. The Board recommends on how sick industries could be revived or closed down if revival is not possible.

With these references received, 5,412 were registered under section 15 of SICA; 1,707 were dismissed as non-maintainable under the Act; 760 rehabilitation schemes, including 12 by Appellate Authority of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR)/ Supreme Court, were sanctioned and 1,303 companies were recommended to be wound up.

As many as 485 companies have been declared ‘no longer sick’ and were discharged from the purview of SICA on their net worth turning positive after the implementation of the schemes.

Among the 296 references for PSUs, 213 (91 CPSUs and 122 SPSUs) were registered up to September 30, 2006. Rehabilitation schemes were sanctioned for 28 CPSUs and 26 SPSUs. It was recommended that 29 CPSUs and 40 CPSUs be wound up. 9 CPSUs and 14 CPSUs were declared ‘no longer sick’.

The continued decline in the number of strikes and lockouts indicates an improvement in industrial relations in the country. The number of strikes and lockouts, taken together, was down by .4 per cent in 2005. During the current year, as per the available information till September, 2006 West Bengal experienced the maximum instances of strikes and lockout followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Industrial disturbances were concentrated mainly in textile, financial intermediaries (excluding insurance and pension fund), engineering and chemical industries.

REVOLT IN TDP

HYDERABAD, March 4 (INFA): Open defiance by senior leaders, dissension among local cadres and lack of popular support is causing concern to the TDP President, N. Chandrababu Naidu. But, as the leader of the Opposition since the Party lost power in May 2004, Naidu has not been able to galvanise his partymen to launch popular agitations on important public issues. The party is frittering away its scarce resources on non-issues which do not concern the public at large.

The TDP leaders, including former ministers, ex-MLAs, former MPs and party functionaries, have virtually taken a long holiday from active politics and this is one reason why the Party cadres have also gone into hibernation. Only when Naidu gives a call for organizing a protest dharna on some issues or other do these leaders and cadres make their guest appearance and again go back to their personal preoccupations.

Some recent happenings indicate the said state of affairs in the TDP. Narsipatnam MLA Ch. Ayyannapatrudu raised a banner of revolt against Naidu over the selection of Party candidates for the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation elections. The Party launched a membership enrolment and renewal drive but realizing that popular support has waned it had to bring down the target drastically.

The TDP’s so-called Statewide agitation against the Congress Government’s alleged anti-poor policies recently turned out to be a flop show.  The TDP is also waging a fruitless agitation demanding the location of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Basar.---INFA