CM denies closure move behind PSU restructuring

Hyderabad, July 10 (UNI) Allaying fears of the working class about imminent closure of public sector units and cooperatives, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today made it clear that the proposed reforms in 30 PSUs and cooperatives, was only to improve their efficiency and withstand competition from the private sector.

Talking to newspersons here he said ''Under no circumstances, these units will be closed down. My Government will strive hard to put them on growth path till the last day it is in power." Dr Reddy said there was no proposal to disinvest from PSUs.

Brushing aside the opposition charge that the Government was planning to close them down in the name of restructuring of 10 units each in the next three years, Dr Reddy said '' On no account these prestigious PSUs including the State Road Transport Corporation(RTC) will be privatised. The interests of the State and the people will be protected at any cost''.

The Chief Minister said only with this aim his Government had provided last year Rs 600 crore assistance to the RTC, which had already started making profits after the Congress party assumed power and it would be strengthened further to enable it to compete with the private sector, he explained.

The Government was contemplating merger of the State Industrial Development Corporation with the State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation as no entrepreneur was approaching the former for loans and preferred to go directly to commercial banks.

In every sector, the Government was striving its best to improve performance and efficiency and referred to the reduction in power tariff for industrialists and maintaining a reasonable price for power supplied to domestic and commercial sector, even while providing free power to farmers and reducing Government subsidy to the Transmission Corporation, he said.

Taking a dig at the TDP, he said while the Congress Government was concentrating on a major irrigation intiative and provided water to 7.50 lakh acres from this Khariff, the TDP, which had saddled the State with a debt of over Rs 60,000 crore, allegedly did not take up even a single major project during its tenure.

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