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Reservations expressed on privatization -
Thatta, Dadu sugar mills
HYDERABAD, April 13: The pros and cons of
privatizing the Thatta and Dadu sugar mills must
be carefully weighed as selling them at throw-away
prices will serve no purpose. This was stated by
the adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on
Information and Archives, Salahuddin Haider, in a
statement issued here on Sunday.
He said that against the total assets of Rs1.3
billion of the two mills, Rs200 million - Rs150
million for the Dadu Sugar Mill and Rs50 million
for the Thatta mill - was the maximum offers
received from the bidders so far.
Terming the offered amounts peanuts, the adviser
said that the bidders, after buying the mills,
seemed to be interested in selling off their
valuable lands and machines as scrap than in
running them.
The adviser said that he was not against the
privatisation but it must serve some purpose. He
said that pressure from the donor agencies to
privatize government industries could be warded
off through dialogue as had been done in the case
of a World Bank demand to merge the provincial
finance, revenue and excise and taxation
departments into a broad- based agency.
He elaborated that the Sindh cabinet had resisted
the pressure and succeeded in convincing the bank
that by creating such an agency, an octopus would
be created whose burden would be heavier on
exchequer than that of separately running the
departments.
Mr Hadier urged the Sindh Privatisation Committee
to take up the matter with the federal government
and convince it that instead of disposing off
national assets in scandalous form, it would be
better if the mills were made functional again and
50,000 families, whose livelihood was directly or
indirectly connected with the mills, were taken
care of.
He said that the state would also benefit from
resuming operation of the mills which had
machinery in perfect condition as well as trained
and skilled staff.
He agreed with the mill workers that they should
either be offered golden handshake if the
privatization was necessary or buyers should be
bound down to retain them in service for at least
one year.
Earlier, Mr Haider and Provincial Adviser for
Public Affairs Manzoor Hussain distributed cheques
of two-month salaries to 1,050 employees of the
Dadu Sugar Mill. The Thatta Sugar Mill is closed
since 1995 and the Dadu mill has remained
inoperative since 1999.
The DAWN
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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