GANDHINAGAR, January 4: Yet another officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) has dashed a letter to the Chief Secretary, alleging that some decisions of the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) government on power projects could lose the state Rs 15,000 crore over the next two decades.The officer, R P Gupta, who was served with marching orders from the Energy & Petrochemicals Department, alleges that hasty and improper decisions had brought benefit to large industrial houses like Reliance Petrochemicals, Ahmedabad Electricity Company , and Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply (BSES).
Earlier, additional Chief Secretary A M Bhardwaj had written to the IAS Officers Association charging then chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela with corrupt practices.
The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Reliance Power Ltd (RPL) contains provisions beneficial only to the RPL, and has been iniquitous to GEB which has so far not got any project. The government has agreed to a price of $ 80 per tonne of petro-coke when it
sells for only $ 25 in the United States and when Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd had offered to supply it at $ 20 per tonne.
He alleged that when the matter was referred to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), GEB and the Energy & Petrochemicals department were asked to send a report which would favour allotment of the contract to Reliance. This would mean a loss of Rs 250 crore per year to GEB, and the state would lose Rs 15,000 crore over the two decades of the project.
Reliance will also be given government guarantee for the project, which the government had stopped extending to any party.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
