Buddha’s disinvestment man will now do PM’s bidding

Under Mitra,the state government had embarked on a programme of “restructuring” of the state PSUs with an externally aided programme from the Department of International Development,(DFID),Government of UK.

Mitra did the job of disinvestment of sick state PSUs till July,2005 when he was replaced by Ardhendu Sen,now the state home secretary.

In the prelude and first phase under this restructuring programme,of the 31 state PSUs identified,19 were closed down,four restructured while another four were disinvested between December 2003 and 2007. Of the remaining four state PSUs,three were under the process of restructuring while one was handed over to a cooperative society.

Speaking about how he went about his job of disinvestment when he took over as secretary of the Public Sector Enterprises in 1997,Mitra said,“For the first three years,I had to take everybody into confidence about the necessity of industrial restructuring. We adopted a three-pronged strategy — closing down those which were not commercially viable,divesting 76 per cent of shares to private parties and retaining some in those which were commercially viable.”

Mitra,however,is keeping his fingers crossed about his new role. “Let me take over and settle there and only then I shall be able to say about my new job.”

One of the unique features introduced by Mitra was the Social Safety Net Programme for the employees who lost their jobs. According to this scheme,the employees who were given early retirement options were also given medical coverage. A section of them was also given “re-skilling training” .