Shourie: Back under scanner

New Delhi, July 20: The Left wants the Centre to order a joint parliamentary committee inquiry into the sale of public sector undertaking assets by the previous National Democratic Alliance government.

They have zeroed in on the sale of Airport Centaur hotel in Mumbai, which the Comptroller and Auditor-General report says cost the government Rs 145 crore.

Left MPs raised the issue in both Houses of Parliament today, demanding that the government respond immediately. Instead, Rajya Sabha chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat expunged all proceedings relating to the hotel sale after the issue rocked the Upper House and led to procedural wrangles.

Shekhawat expunged proceedings saying CPM MP Dipankar Mukherjee had raised the issue without the permission of the chair and warned members not to do this again. The Upper House had earlier witnessed uproarious scenes with BJP MPs trooping into the well, leading to a brief adjournment till lunch. They were objecting to Mukherjee’s raising the issue when the chair had not permitted it.

Amid the din, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Suresh Pachouri said whatever needed to be done would be done, leading to a procedural wrangle. The BJP protested over a minister giving an assurance on an issue the chair had not allowed to be raised.

Basudev Acharya, the leader of the CPM in the Lower House, raised the matter in the Lok Sabha but Union home minister Shivraj Patil chose not to speak on the matter.

At a news conference later, Acharya released a letter Mukherjee had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “I urge you to get the cases immediately investigated through the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) or the CBI in order to ensure that such scandalous transactions are not repeated again,” Mukherjee wrote.

“I am sure you will agree that such an inquiry is essential to convey the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government’s commitment to transparency in governance,” he added.

Mukherjee said the parliamentary standing committee on transport and tourism had “observed a number of irregularities in the above sale (of the Airport and Juhu Centaur Hotels) and recommended a CVC inquiry. The NDA government did not accept the recommendation and refused to get the case inquired”, he added.

“We also want the government to institute a JPC probe to look into the sale of assets of PSUs like Modern Food, Balco, ITDC, VSNL, Jessop,” CPM MP Nilotpal Basu said. He added there was no conflict in holding parallel CBI and JPC inquiries.

When the NDA was in power, the Left had persistently targeted divestment minister Arun Shourie, accusing him of selling public sector assets at throwaway prices. Now that the UPA government, which it props up, is in power, the Left wants a probe that it says will reveal how much the previous regime hurt the exchequer.

Mukherjee’s letter leaves no doubt about what the Left thinks of the matter. “It is quite clear that the process of selling off public assets at throwaway prices and reselling the same at a premium was institutionalised through the sale of the Centaur hotel by the earlier government,” Mukherjee wrote.

“The government made no evaluation of the worth of the assets before it sold them. The Left had then repeatedly demanded such an evaluation,” Basu said.