Rajya Sabha MP asks FM to cease Central Electronics sale

Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament John Brittas has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking her to cease the sale of Central Electronics Limited (CEL), alleging that the central public sector unit was being offered to a non-public organisation which neither had the competence within the area, nor the managerial or technological experience.
In his letter to each Sitharaman and Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Science and Technology & Earth Sciences, Brittas mentioned CEL has belongings that far outvalue the quantity for which it’s being offered to Nandal Finance and Leasing. “Today’s market value of the 50-acre land CEL possesses in the National Capital Region (CEL’s Annual Report for 2019-20) in itself exceeds Rs 500 crores. Even if any of its assets are on lease basis, its value for the remaining unexpired tenure of lease may fetch several hundreds of crores.”
“There are allegations that as per the financial statements filed by Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd in 2019-20, 99.96% of its equity were said to be held by M/s Premier Furnitures and Interiors Pvt Limited which has no link to the business of CEL. If this be true, we cannot dismiss the allegations that the Government is proposing to sell a strategic PSU, having ramifications in the defence sector also, indirectly to a furniture company,” Brittas mentioned in his letter.