Describing the attempt to prevent the State government from participating in an open bidding for HLL Lifecare Limited as not in accordance with the principles of cooperative federalism, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday registered the State’s protest against the stand taken by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).
“Preventing a State government from participating in the open bidding will not be in accordance with the principles of cooperative federalism. The State government has the competence accorded to it by the Constitution to take a decision on its own on such matters,” he said in the letter.
He told the Prime Minister that the land for HLL Lifecare Ltd. was acquired and handed over to the Centre by the State government for setting up a specific project. If the Centre proposed not to retain HLL Lifecare Ltd as a government entity, it should give the State government the option to retain it as a public sector unit (PSU) under the State.
“The land and assets of HLL Lifecare Ltd. in Kerala may be handed over to the State government or the State may be permitted to participate in an expression of interest (EoI) process and a request for proposal process for the disinvestment,” the letter said.
The DIPAM had recently communicated to the State government that there was no scope for the government/ government public sector enterprises (PSEs) to participate in the strategic disinvestment process. A State Cabinet meeting held earlier this week had decided that the Chief Minister would write to the Prime Minister seeking permission to participate in the bid.
“As per the preliminary information memorandum and global invitation for the submission of EoI for the strategic disinvestment of HLL Lifecare Ltd, CPSES or Central government-owned cooperative societies, that is 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 in the proposed transaction. It is not specified anywhere that the State government or State PSUs are not eligible to participate in the bidding process of HLL,” Mr. Vijayan said in the letter.
