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PM meets key ministers on divestment issue

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday afternoon met senior Cabinet colleagues including Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes on the controversial divestment issues hours ahead of the crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik and Divestment Minister Arun Shourie were also present in the informal meeting, the second in the week convened by Vajpayee, for evolving a consensus in the wake of sharp differences within Bharatiya Janata Party and coalition partners.

No official comment was available on the nearly two-and-a half-hour meeting as all the participants drove away from the prime minister's residence.

However, sources said that the CCD meeting slated for Saturday evening will now most likely be held and the divestment of the oil PSUs would be discussed there. Earlier, reports had suggested that the meeting might be postponed.

According to available indication, the discussions at the 'pre-CCD meeting' mainly centered on the merit of strategic sale of equity in public sector units, particularly the oil companies - Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

Saturday's meeting follows days of consultations by Vajpayee and Advani with various ministers even as BJP came out openly in support of the government's divestment programme which has been bogged down by the open airing of differences on various issues with raging debate on strategic sale versus public offer route.

To complicate the matters for the government, even the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said on Friday that the government should not privatise strategic oil PSUs and reconsider its policy on majority sale of equity in profitable companies.

Additional inputs: Correspondent

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