Conspicuously, there is no minister for divestment in the new UPA government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which poses a big question mark about the fate of the ministry.

In the allocation of portfolios on Sunday night, no one was given the charge of ministry of divestment even though the announcement made by President's office said that all the unallocated portfolios would be with the prime minister.

Even the officers and staff appeared to be dumbstruck, not knowing as to who they were to report.

The silence about the ministry follows the demand by Left Parties, which are supporting the government from outside, for scrapping of the ministry.

• The Divestment Development

A staff member of the divestment secretary, in fact, wanted to know from the scribes themselves as to what was happening about the ministry, particularly in the wake of strong opposition from CPM and CPI against privatisation of the Navratna and profit-making PSUs.

Even the newly appointed Minister for Steel Ram Vilas Paswan, on the very first day in office, talked tough on pending divestment of two profit-making PSUs -- MOIL and SIIL -- under the steel ministry.

On the three loss-making entities also, Paswan said: "I will go there personally and review these units. We shall try to turn them around and then decide."

The draft Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government also said that strategic PSUs like ONGC, GAIL, HPCL, BPCL, NTPC, SAIL and BHEL and other profit-making PSUs would not be privatised, and about the others, the government would consider on a case-by-case basis.

Meanwhile, the Web site of the divestment ministry could not be accessed with a message posted on the Web stating it was under re-construction.

Even the Website of the divestment commission, a body created by the United Front government, could not be accessed despite statements from UPA leaders that the government would follow its recommendations.