Jairam Ramesh 1 short of 100 questions to PM Modi on Adani issue

Jairam Ramesh 1 short of 100 questions to PM Modi on Adani issue

Jairam Ramesh on Monday launched three questions for the 33rd time to PM Modi over Adani row.

FPJ BureauUpdated: Monday, March 20, 2023, 10:46 PM IST
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ANI

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh was on Monday just one short of 100 questions to Prime Minister Modi on flourishing of his businessman friend Gautam Adani.

Here are his three questions in the 33rd of the HAHK (Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun) series:

(1) A 9 July 2018 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India found that the Adani Group had been the major beneficiary of flawed coal import tenders issued by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) between July 2012 and February 2016. Examining five of those tenders, the CAG found that TANGEDCO unnecessarily restricted competition to only four bidders by closing the sale of tender documents much earlier than required and using an artificially high minimum turnover requirement for bidders. It also adopted a tainted pricing methodology that led it to pay higher prices than other power utilities and to overpay for lower-quality coal than had been contracted. The CAG stated that the Singapore-based Adani Global and two other firms won 96% of the total import value of Rs 8,8884.44 crore in the tenders covered by its audit. The Chennai-based NGO Arappor Iyakkam estimates that Adani won 49% of the orders totalling 11.9 million MT and made excess profits of $363 million (Rs 3,000 crore). Your personal influence over the then AIADMK-run state government is no secret. Did you play any role in helping your cronies make yet another illicit gain, this time at the expense of Tamil Nadu taxpayers?

(2) Mundra has 14 thermal power plants with a capacity of 8,620 megawatts (MW), including nine Adani Power plants that generate 4,620 MW. A CAG report tabled in the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha on 22 September 2022 found that the state government had turned a blind eye to environmental violations by the Adani Group. Adani Power had illegally dumped 15.42 lakh tonnes of toxic fly ash in low-lying areas between 2014-15 and 2018-19 without the approval of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB). It had wrongly reported the recycling of this toxic byproduct even though it had no online monitoring system to ensure it, as required by the union Ministry of Power. The CAG reported that “GPCB did not take any action against APL for dumping the fly ash as in the low-lying areas without its approval and for incorrect reporting of 100% utilisation of fly ash.” What is the source of the Adani Group’s impunity that prevented the Ministry of Power and the GPCB from taking action against such blatant violations? Is your concern for your favourite group’s profits so much greater than for the Gujarati villagers and fishermen whose health and livelihoods have been damaged by rampant fly-ash pollution?

(3) Adani Power has been defaulting on its power supply obligations to Haryana since December 2020 (as we pointed out in the 4 March 2023 HAHK). It now transpires that not only is Haryana not receiving the electricity it is due from Adani Power in Mundra, but electricity from Haryana has been illegally diverted to Mundra for onward supply to consumers in Gujarat. The All India Power Engineers’ Federation has shown that 1,790.25 million units of electricity power flowed in the reverse direction on the Mundra-Mohindergarh high-voltage direct current line between April and December 2022. This occurred at a time when Haryana was facing frequent power cuts, but the powers-that-be seem to have felt that it was more important to appease Gujarat voters in the run up to the December 2022 state election. Is it true that Haryana paid for the electricity supplied to Gujarat? Are you pressuring the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to ignore violations of longstanding power-purchase agreements by your cronies? Why is the CERC overlooking the blatant violation of Section 26 of the Electricity Act that prohibits the National Load Despatch Centre from trading in electricity?

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