Chatterjee Group chief meet Mamata ahead of HPL board meet

Kolkata, March 26 (IANS) The Chatterjee Group (TCG) chairman and co-promoter of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) Purnendu Chatterjee Monday met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the eve of a crucial board meeting of the cash-starved company.

HPL, the second largest maker of polyethylene in India and co-promoted by the state government, is currently facing acute financial crisis and observers fear that the company would clock the biggest ever loss in the current financial year.

The government has already proposed state Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee's name as its nominee in the HPL board and a resolution has also been drawn in this terms.

TCG, however, is learnt to have not yet signed the resolution.

The meet of the chief minister and TCG chairman was significant before Tuesday's board meeting as the government was eager to place the industry minister as the non-executive chairman.

Neither Banerjee nor Purnendu Chatterjee divulged any detail about the discussion, but the latter when asked if he would prefer minister Partha Chatterjee as the chairman, said, "what is wrong in it."

The minister said the Board would decide who would be the chairman.

"The board will decide who should be the chairman. If the board wants me to become the chairman, then I shall take the responsibility," he said.

HPL is a modern naphtha-based petrochemical complex located 125 km from Kolkata, at Haldia in West Bengal's East Midnapore district.