Sunny times for a Congress MP

A major private sector power company owned by a Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh has bagged about 40 per cent of the solar power projects auctioned by the central government in the first phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in blatant violation of rules, claims a non-governmental organisation.

Lanco Infratech, a listed company, has bagged nine solar photovoltaic and solar thermal projects through seven front companies and two subsidiaries.

Of the projects to generate 620 MW, that were auctioned by the government in November 2010 in the first batch of the first phase of the project, Lanco bagged 235 MW, which goes completely against the rules set up by the government, shows an investigation carried out by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment.

But as per the guidelines of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Resources, one company is allowed to bid for and win one 100-MW solar thermal and one 5-MW solar PV project – totaling projects of 105 MW.

Lanco Infratech is owned by Lagadapati Rajagopal, current Congress MP from Vijayawada and one of the richest MPs.

“This is the world's biggest publicly funded project. Not only consumers are paying for it, the Rajasthan government is giving land at throw away price. But public funds are cornered by one company,” alleged Chandra Bhusan, CSE deputy director general.

There are clearly established paper trails in the Union Corporate Affairs Ministry showing Lanco's link to at least two front companies – DDE Renewable Energy and Electromech Maritech. In other five cases, the coincidences are too many to call for an investigation from the government side.

However, neither MNRE nor NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited probed any of these strange coincidences.

A Lanco spokesperson would not respond to specific queries, but said the “allegations were not cross-checked with company and wrongly perceived.”