Rs.1,450-crore revival package for IDPL

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 11. The Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr. Bandaru Dattatreya, has appealed to the employees to cooperate with the Centre in implementing a Rs. 1,450-crore revival package for the public sector IDPL.

Mr. Dattatreya made this plea following the unenthusiastic response from the employees to private sector participation after their revival as they are in favour of the Government of India continuing to run the sick drug company.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, which initially wanted IDPL to be wound up, had now accepted the Centre's revival package and was searching for strategic partners in the private sector for the units at Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Rishikesh, Chennai and Muzaffarpur.

Expressing gratitude to the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, for taking the initiative to revive the IDPL, which has been lying sick since 1992, he said the package envisaged Rs. 510 crores towards equity, Rs. 675 crores for payment to suppliers and interest, Rs. 150 crores for the voluntary retirement scheme, Rs. 100 crores towards payment of statutory dues like LIC and PF and Rs. 22 crores as guarantee fee. He said workers should realise that the Centre had been paying them salaries amounting to Rs. 434 crores since 1996 although production in the units was negligible. At least 3,000 out of 8,000-strong workforce of the PSU would have to opt for VRS, he added.

Mr. Dattatreya justified the Centre's policy of disinvesting from healthy PSUs like CMC Ltd and reviving sick units like IDPL since the latest technology could be introduced only if there was private sector participation. Moreover, the Government had to protect the interests of workers.

Referring to his own efforts in pushing the IDPL's case before the Prime Minister, he said that was also putting pressure on the Defence Minister to revive Praga Tools Ltd. in Hyderabad, which was slipping into huge losses every year.

The general secretary of IDPL Mazdoor Sangh, Mr. R. Raghunath, gave credit to Mr. Dattatreya for forcing the Centre to revive the drug company, and said the Centre should run the units.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dattatreya appealed to Muslims in the country not to be misled by propaganda by pro-Taliban elements posing themselves as champions of Islam. He said the Taliban Government had indulged in several un-Islamic acts such as shooting women without trial, which had nothing to do with Islam. Muslims should rally behind the Government in its efforts to combat terrorism, he said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Next     : No headway in talks with RTC employees