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Maharashtra reluctant to close loss-making units

The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government seems reluctant to wind up loss-making public sector companies.

The loss-making corporations, numbering 19, have already lost Rs 2.02 billion in the present financial year. In 1995-96, the loss was put at Rs 300 million.

The National Textiles Corporation, which tops the list with a loss of Rs 1.01 billion, recently shocked the financial world by organising a lavish party at a leading five-star hotel in Bombay.

The list includes the Maharashtra State Electronics Corporation (Rs 135.7 million loss), the Maharashtra State Khadi Corporation (43.4 million), the State Land Development Corporation (Rs 18.1 million) and the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (Rs 11.5 million).

Though the state government has been extending soft loans and other concessions to save these units, the Sena-BJP alliance has ignored the Vasant Rajadhyaksha Committee's comprehensive plan to rejuvenate these units even as the Bombay high court's Aurangabad bench stayed their closure.

The state government has, however, not challenged the order in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, 239 out of the 469 workers of the Marathwada Development Corporation and its subsidiaries have taken voluntary retirement. In Marathwada Ceramics Ltd, 101 out of the 125 workers had accepted voluntary retirement.

Compiled and translated from the Marathi media by Prasanna Zorey