Govt to propose shutting Instrumentation Ltd's Rajasthan unit

Government will send a proposal to the Union Cabinet regarding closure of the loss-making Instrumentation Limited unit at Kota in Rajasthan, which has 600 employees, Union Minister Anant Geete said today.
While the Kota unit of Instrumentation Limited has been in the red since many years, the Palakkad unit has been making profits. Geete had earlier written to Rajasthan and Kerala governments requesting them to take over the units.
"Rajasthan has rejected the proposal so we have decided to shut the unit. We will send a proposal to Cabinet in this regard. The Kerala Government has shown interest (in taking over the Palakkad unit) but no final decision has been taken yet on that. The Kota unit has 600 employees while the Palakkad unit has 350 employees," Geete told reporters here.

Employees of the Palakkad unit have been demanding that the government either delink it from its loss-making mother unit at Kota or merge with a profit-making PSU.
The government had last month approved hiving off profit-making Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) from its parent company Instrumentation Ltd and turning it into an independent central public sector enterprise (CPSE) under the Department of Heavy Industry.
REIL was a joint venture between Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation (RIICO) and Instrumentation Ltd, Kota, with 49 per cent and 51 per cent ownership, respectively.