The government on Tuesday came in for sharp criticism on the divestment issue with a parliamentary committee asking it to come forward with a comprehensive policy document on the matter.

In its report tabled in both houses of legislature, the standing committee on finance decreed the government for failing to formulate a comprehensive policy document.

Taking a serious view of what it termed a casual approach on the part of government, the report said, "The committee were rather perturbed by the government's casual approach towards the committee's repeated recommendations to bring out a comprehensive document on divestment policy which could be laid before Parliament for its approval."

The group headed by N Janardhana Reddy further declined to accept a document put forward by the government arguing the same was a mere compilation of a similar book published earlier.

The members also registered their displeasure over the failure to table the document stating, "They were unable to understand the difficulty faced by the government in formulating the comprehensive policy document."

It may be mentioned that the privatisation programme received a set back after the Supreme Court halted divestment in two oil majors HPCL and BPCL for failure to seek parliamentary approval.

The move to sell the government equity in at least two other companies namely Shipping Corporation and Hindustan Copper has been entangled in litigation with employees' unions dragging the government to court citing the apex courts judgement in the oil PSU case.