Centre violating SC order for select bizmen: Congress

The Congress on Wednesday launched yet another attack on the Modi government accusing it of favouring a select group of business houses by helping them renegotiate power purchase agreements with a state-run power company in violation of a Supreme Court order.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said last year the Supreme Court had struck down the plea of Adani Power, Essar Power Gujarat Limited and a Tata company seeking an increase in the electricity tariff under the power purchase agreement signed with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL).

Ramesh said at the instance of the Modi government at the Centre the Gujarat government had set up a three-member panel to make a recommendation on how to provide relief to the three power companies.

“The setting up of this committee is a violation of the Supreme Court judgement and a bonanza for their favourite industrialists,” Ramesh said at a press conference here along with Gujarat Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil.

Gohil said the three companies had agreed to sell power to GUVNL and four other state government entities at the rate of Rs 2.40 to Rs 2.90 per unit as part of a long-term contract signed in 2007. He said the three companies did supply power at the said rates for five years but sought relief in 2012 citing an increase in international coal prices.

“This is a classic example of crony capitalism. The government wants to willfully violate the Supreme Court order to benefit the private companies and put the burden of high power tariffs on the common man,” Ramesh said.

Gohil claimed that the three companies stood to benefit to the tune of Rs 88,000 crore through the execution of the contract signed with GUVNL for the supply of power for a 25 year period.