In a last-ditch attempt to save the Palakkad unit of the public sector Instrumentation Limited from an imminent closure, employees union leaders along with Palakkad MP M.B. Rajesh on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and sought steps to delink the profit-making unit from its loss-making mother unit at Kota in Rajasthan and provide it an independent existence.
The Prime Minister, who gave a patient hearing to the anxieties raised by the leaders, assured them that he would initiate steps to keep the unit alive. Mr. Modi had termed their demand as just and promised that there would be efforts to save it from the present crisis.
Employees of the unit had decided to meet the Prime Minister seeking his intervention after the Union government decided not to operate those public sector enterprises which fail to generate income to support at least the salary-related needs of their employees. Though the Palakkad unit is making profit ever since it was established in 1974, the mother unit at Kota has already caused salary arrears amounting to Rs.300 crore. The Union government is considering Instrumentation Limited as a single enterprise though the Palakkad unit never caused any loss.
The crisis turned severe when the Union government recently rejected a proposal of the then UPA government to make the Palakkad unit a subsidiary of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). The UPA government had taken such a stand after the Hyderabad-based Institute of Public Enterprises Limited, which explored various options for the unit’s survival, recommended its merger with BHEL, which presently buys 65 per cent of the products manufactured by the unit.
