Centre asks Kerala, Rajasthan to take over Instrumentation Ltd units

While the Kota unit of Instrumentation Ltd has been in the red since many years, the Palakkad unit has been making profits

The Centre is looking at ways to "untangle" the business of Instrumentation Limited (IL) and has requested the Kerala and Rajasthan governments to take over the company's units located at Palakkad and Kota, respectively.

While the Kota unit of IL has been in the red since many years, the Palakkad unit has been making profits.

"We have requested the chief ministers of Rajasthan and Kerala to consider taking over these respective units. While we have a positive response from Kerala, the initial response from Rajasthan is negative," a senior official in the Department of Heavy Industry told PTI.

"We may approach the Cabinet with a proposal for state government to take over the Kerala unit. If the Rajasthan government refuses then we have to take a call on the further continuance of the Kota unit. We may decide to close IL, Kota, and hand over IL, Palakkad, unit to the state government," the official added.

Employees of the Palakkad unit have been demanding that the government should either delink the profit-making unit from its loss-making mother unit at Kota in Rajasthan or merge it with a profit-making PSU.

The government last month had approved hiving off profit-making Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) from its parent company IL and turning it into an independent central public sector enterprise under the Department of Heavy Industry.

"The case is different because REIL was a subsidiary of IL while Palakkad unit is very much a part of IL."

"We are looking at ways to untangle this IL business as Palakkad unit is doing reasonably well whereas IL, Kota, is in the red," the official said.