Merger of boards, corpns on cards

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 27

The Cabinet sub-committee on resource mobilisation today submitted its final report to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who is expected to place it before the Cabinet tomorrow.

The report, which was finalised by the committee, headed by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes, here at its meeting last night, will now be discussed.

“We have submitted the report containing about 60 suggestions to the Chief Minister, who will now place it before the Cabinet,” said Stokes. The other two members of the committee are Transport Minister GS Bali and Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri. It was in August last year that the committee had been constituted.

It is reliably learnt that the committee has suggested the merger of some boards and corporations which have a similar nature of work. This could mean the merger of the State Small Industries and Export Corporation, the State Industrial Development Corporation and the General Industries Corporation and of the Handicraft and Handloom Corporation with Khadi and Village Industrial Board.

Out of a total of 21 boards and corporations, almost 12 are running in losses and those which are in profit, their earnings are so marginal that it has been suggested that it will be better to merge these with others. The scrapping of any board or corporation is ruled out as this can incur the wrath of employees.

The committee has also suggested that the government should impose heavy penalty on all delayed projects. It has also suggested that incentives may be given to those which complete the projects before time.

The committee is learnt to have recommended that all ministers, bureaucrats, chairmen and vice-chairmen and other government functionaries must cut down their expenditure.

One of the suggestions given by the committee is to take effective steps which can help the government in enhancing its income from the forest and mining sectors. The report has stressed that these are two sectors where there is a lot of scope for revenue generation if some concrete steps are taken and a policy made.

The committee has also suggested that renewed efforts should be made to get the pending amount of Rs 4,200 crores due from Punjab and Haryana on account of the pending power arrears under the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB). Similarly, efforts should be stepped up to get the delayed government payments released at the earliest.