Roll back entire BALCO deal, demands Left

New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) Emboldened by the Government's decision to return Sterlite's Rs 1098 crore cheque, the Left parties today demanded the government roll back the BALCO disinvestment process and institute a thorough inquiry into similiar deals finalised during the NDA regime.

While refraining from the disinvesment spree, the government should order a thorough inquiry into the other disinvesment deals, including Modern Foods, Centaur Hotels, HPCL and VSNL, the leaders of the CPI(M), CPI and Forward Bloc told UNI.

The UPA government yesterday rejected a cheque of Rs 1098 crore sent by Anil Aggarwal-owned Sterlite Industries for the residual 49 per cent government shares in BALCO, after the CAG indicted the price and valuation of the disinvestment of BALCO. The Manmohan Singh government also constituted a Committee of Secretaries to review the sale.

''During NDA's six-year rule, the assets of PSUs were handed over to private parties at throw-away prices, causing a huge loss to the national exchequer... it has happened in the case of the Centaur Hotel and even before that IPCL was similarly sold at a low price,'' CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said, adding that the very concept that national assets could be sold for meeting the budget deficit was ''pernicious and against the country's interest.''' Noting that BALCO was a ''huge'' company, with assets of Rs 5000 crores and a Rs 150 crore power house among others, CPI Polit Bureau member and CITU chief M K Pandhe called on the government to cancel the rest 51 per cent holding Sterlite possessed in BALCO. Citing the CAG report, he said it had criticised the previous NDA government for ''undervaluation'' of a number of PSUs including BALCO and VSNL." ''Besides the present Finance Minister P Chidambram was then a member of the Board of Directors of BALCO. He should have realised that the deal was struck with the ulterior motive of mobilising resources for the party and the partymen,'' Mr Pandhe said.

CPI National Secretary Shamim Faizi said the CAG report on disinvestment of PSUs under the NDA regime has ''thoroughly exposed the intentions of the then rulers.'' Noting that at the time of the BALCO disinvestment, the then Finance Ministry had ''doled out the theory that resource mobilisation was going on,'' he suggested that the Manmohan Singh government draw ''proper lessons and desist from disinvesting profit-making PSUs.'' The government should not put the remaining 49 per cent shares under the hammer until proper measures to realise the real worth of BALCO are completed,'' the CPI leader, the editor of the Party weekly 'The New Age', said.

Senior CPI(M) leader and former Rajya Sabha member Nilotpal Basu contended that the the Left had maintained that the privatisation of BALCO was a scam and the CAG had confirmed the same. ''The move by certain sections of the government to accept the manipulated cheque by the Sterlite group was opposed on the floor of the House,'' he said, adding that now the Union Cabinet had also reversed the move to accept Sterlite's cheque, based on the manipulation.

Terming it a ''step in the right direction,'' he said the government must go ahead and institute a proper investigation in the circumstances on the basis of which a majority shares of BALCO were transfered to Sterlite and fix acountability ''where it is due.'' Forward Bloc National Secretary G Devrajan said an enquiry was neded to establish how the huge amount was ''siphoned off'' during the NDA regime.

''The Left parties had demanded on the floor of the House that all the documents on BALCO disinvesment be produced. All such deals during the Vajpayee government should be investigated,'' he added.

UNI KSA VD AT KN1542