Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Congress on Monday alleged that the ruling BJP is giving 1,050 acres of land in Bihar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "friend" Gautam Adani at Rs 1 for 33 years for a power project, just ahead of Assembly elections in the state, and allowing it to sell electricity to people at Rs 6.75 per unit.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress Media and Publicity Department Chairman Pawan Khera claimed that a "double looting" is happening in Bihar, as people would have to buy electricity from a power plant built in Bhagalpur using Bihar's land, coal and money.
"The Modi government is all set to give ten lakh trees, 1,050 acre land to Adani for Rs one per year for 33 years for a 2,400 megawatt project with a budget of Rs 21,400 crore. Farmers, whose land is being acquired, are restricted to their homes by authorities so that they do not protest, as Modi is in Bhagalpur today," he said.
"This power plant was announced in the Budget. However, at that time, the government had said that it would set up the plant itself. But later, the government backed out and handed over this project to Adani. A plant built on Bihar's land, with Bihar's money, generating electricity from Bihar's coal will be sold to Bihar's people at Rs 6.75 per unit. This is 'double looting'. Adani is benefiting from being Modi's friend," he said.
Khera claimed that a power plant project and Dharavi project were given to Adani just before Maharashtra Assembly elections and similarly, in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, projects were given to the industrialist before the polls. This is a very long list and whenever the BJP feels that they will lose the election, “gifts are given” to Adani beforehand, he alleged.
He claimed that farmers were intimidated, forced to sign with a pencil and their land was taken and the electricity generated from the same plant will be sold to the people of Bihar at a higher rate while for Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, this rate is Rs 3-4.
In an apparent reference to the BJP's campaign that Modi's mother was insulted by RJD and Congress, he said the BJP runs campaigns like 'One Tree in Mother's Name' but at the same time it values the same land, which farmers consider akin to their mother, at just Rs 1.
“Narendra Modi is looting Bihar in this manner for his friend, and it is through such actions that Bihar has been turned into a 'BIMARU state'. The government is seizing land from Bihar, taking coal, cutting trees, and selling electricity to the same people. Where is justice in this?” he said.