State chief secys in corporate monitoring panel

The Union government has decided to include chief secretaries of state governments in the Central Monitoring and Co-ordination Committee (CMC) to ensure greater co-operation from the states.

Addressing the media here today, Prem Chand Gupta, the Union minister for companies affairs, said the proposed restructuring of CMC was aimed at taking penal actions against the promoters and directors, especially when it would require to take punitive action against them under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The idea of revamping the Companies Act, 1956 is to ensure strict penal actions against the vanishing companies as well as protect the interest of the small shareholders, he added.

Gupta said the Center was planning to take more stringent action against the directors, auditors and managers when required.

"Government is also planning to publish names, addresses of the vanishing companies and their directors in newspapers. We have to ensure stringent action against the vanishing companies. It is not excepted that since some of them have started filing income-tax returns and documents with the authorities in name, they would be spared for their wrongdoings in the past," he added.