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Row in RS over Centaur Hotel deal

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 17. The Rajya Sabha today witnessed a row over the Mumbai Centaur Hotel deal, with the Shiv Sena MP, Sanjay Nirupam, alleging that its employees were being harassed and some of them suffered from serious health problems.

Mr. Nirupam's renewed attack against the Government found support from the Opposition benches and the members belonging to the Left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal joined the protest, demanding a statement from the Disinvestment Minister, who was present in the House.

The Left parties later staged a walkout after the Deputy Chairperson, Najma Heptulla, disallowed a move to discuss the matter again.

Dr. Heptulla said the Chairman had permitted only Mr. Nirupam to raise the matter during zero hour and that she would not allow others to discuss disinvestment again. As per rules, a discussion on a subject could not be held twice in the same session.

Mr. Nirupam sought to know the fate of his notice of privilege against the Disinvestment Minister, Arun Shourie, stating that the latter had "misled" the House while replying to a discussion disinvestment earlier in this session.

He said after the Government sold the hotel in June this year, five of its employees had suffered a stroke/heart attack, and demanded a probe whether these were linked to the management's move to force the employees to take voluntary retirement or face transfer. Mr. Nirupam said four of the five employees had since died, while the fifth was in coma in a city hospital.

Demanding that the Government probe this aspect, Mr. Nirupam said disinvestment should be implemented with a human face. He had given a notice last week to move the privilege motion.

He had earlier submitted a list of documents authenticated by him to substantiate his charge that all was not above board in the deal.

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