Centre goes ahead with divestment for country’s first pharma company Bengal Chemicals, workers question decision

The Centre has moved a step ahead for divestment in yet another central public sector undertaking (CPSU).

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has taken the decision to divest its stake in the first pharmaceutical company of the country incorporated by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy in 1901. A committee will be formed to divest the government stake in two pharmaceutical companies, one of which is Bengal Chemicals.

After the meeting of the council of ministers on Thursday, minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said that the government will go for strategic sale of two companies, Bengal Chemicals and Hindustan Antibiotics. Two other government-owned pharmaceutical companies, Indian Drugs and Rajasthan Drugs, will be closed down, he said. The Centre has decided to sell off the “excess land” in the office premises of the two companies.

Workers have expressed displeasure at the decision of the Union government to sell a profit-making CPSU. The decision on Bengal Chemicals had been taken four years ago, and now a committee is being formed to execute the decision.

Bengal Chemicals has earned a profit of Rs 25 crore in the last financial year – an all time record for the company. The workers have thus questioned the government decision, especially because the organisation is gradually making more profit.

In 2016, the decision was taken to sell the excess land of Bengal Chemicals and divest the government stake in the organization. At that time the CITU-backed workers union moved High Court against the decision. The verdict of the single bench went in favour of the union. Later, the Centre appealed in the division bench of the court. The outcome of the appeal is pending, but the verdict may be out soon.