Govt to discuss PSU divestment with Left parties

The UPA regime plans to take up the issue of disinvestment of profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) with the Left parties after the winter session of Parliament. Finance Minister P Chidambaram spoke to CPI(M) Politburo member and MP Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday proposing to hold a meeting at the end of the session to break the stalemate over disinvestment.

The senior CPI(M) leader told Chidambaram that UPA-Left Coordination Committee was the right forum to discuss this issue. Asked about his discussions with the FM, Yechury told Business Standard that Chidambaram wanted to discuss the issue of disinvestment of small equity from large PSUs.

"We can discuss it at the Coordination Committee meeting after the winter session," he said.

The FM's initiative came over five months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had put all disinvestment decisions and proposals on hold following DMK's threat to withdraw from the UPA government if the latter went ahead with disinvestment from Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).

Although the DMK's threat was the immediate reason for the PM's announcement, it had come in the backdrop of an aggressive posturing by the Left parties against the UPA regime's move to divest small equity from NLC in Tamil Nadu and NALCO in Orissa.