Allow bidding or hand over HLL assets, Pinarayi tells PM Modi

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking permission for the state government to participate in the bidding for disinvestment of HLL Lifecare Ltd. The state government should be given the first right to hold land and assets of the Central PSU, he said in the letter. 

The letter said the land for the HLL Lifecare Ltd was acquired and handed over to the Government of India by the state government for setting up a specific project. “If the Centre proposes not to retain HLL Lifecare Ltd as a government entity, it follows that the state government should be given the option to retain it as a state PSU. Hence the state government should be given the First Right to hold the land and assets of the Hindustan Lifecare Ltd in Kerala,” he said. 

He said that preventing a state government from participating in an open bidding process will not be in accordance with the principles of cooperative federalism. The state government has the competence accorded to it by the Constitution to decide on its own in such matters. 

The letter is in the backdrop of a communication from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management that there is no scope for government or government PSEs to participate in the strategic disinvestment process. As per the Preliminary Information Memorandum and global invitation for the submission of Expression of Interest for the strategic disinvestment of HLL Lifecare Ltd, CPSEs or central government-owned cooperative societies i.e., entities where the direct holding of the central government or of other CPSEs is 51% or more are the only ones specified as being not eligible to participate. It is not specified anywhere that the state government/state PSUs are not eligible to participate in the bidding process, the letter said.