According to sources in the Citu-affiliated All India Peerless Worker's Union, the move was opposed since both the union and the Peerless management were jointly considering each other's suggestions to mobilise deposits.

When contacted by The Financial Express, general manager, A Purokayastha, who is also in charge of human resource, declined to make any comment saying: "I am not authorised to speak to the press". Managing director SK Ray was unavailable for comment over the past of couple of days.

An official in the managingdirector's secretariat without divulging his name said: "This is an internal administrative matter on which Peerless management will not like to comment".

Sources in the company said Dasgupta has been sacked only to appease the unions which vehemently opposed the suspension of work at the Midnapore branch. Union sources said they don't know the reasons as to why Dasgupta has been sacked.

Both the management and the unions met on January 20 to discuss ways and means to revive Peerless's investment income. In fact, chairman DN Ghosh had announced after the company's 63rd annual general meeting on December 21 last year that besides augmenting income, there is need to focus on increasing productivity and efficiency of human and distribution systems.The management has agreed to the union's suggestion of continuing with the 18-tier commission structure for its 4.5 million-strong field staff.

The largest residuary non-banking finance company in the country posted a net loss of Rs 17.80 crore in the year toMarch 31, 1998 against a net loss of Rs 30.82 crore in the previous year. The company's board, had set a collection target (new deposits plus renewals) of Rs 700 crore for the year to March 31, 1999. Against this, renewals amounted to Rs 167 crore in the six months to September 30, 1998 against a target of Rs 370 crore for the year, while new deposits amounted to only Rs 22 crore against the target of Rs 330 crore.