West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya on Sunday said that his government would soon close down 64 of the state's loss-making undertakings. Bhattacharya told a press conference that the undertakings were accumulating huge losses and their chances of revival were nil. He, however, assured that the government would provide the employees of the companies with sufficient safeguards against harassment. A technical committee, constituted to prepare a list of other sick undertakings, had already submitted an interim report which was being considered, he said, adding that they had to be financially self-sufficient or face closure.
Asked why he was critical of the central government's policy to close down PSUs when his own government had decided to wind up state undertakings, the chief minister pointed out that while the Centre was targeting profit-making PSUs, the state government was closing only the consistently loss-making companies.
Bhattacharya said that his government had decided to continue with the loss-making north Bengal state transport corporation because of the importance of its service to a wide cross-section of people.
Bureau Report