Govt vigil on course of gas tiff
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Aug. 13: A panel of ministers will try to ensure that the government speaks in one voice during next month’s hearings on the Ambani gas dispute before the Supreme Court.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formed the panel today, which is headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
As the date of hearing — September 1 — looms, concerns are mounting over the bitter legal battle, involving the government, Mukesh Ambani and brother Anil, compromising the rights of some government entities to the gas from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin.
During the hearing, the panel will co-ordinate the responses of the concerned ministries.
In the last two days, the Ambani brothers had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior government officials.
Sources said Mukesh today met Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar and T.K.A. Nair, principal secretary in the PMO.
Anil had reportedly met yesterday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and other senior government officials.
Spokespersons for Mukesh’s Reliance Industries and Anil’s Reliance Natural Resources Limited did not confirm or deny the meetings.
The sources said the two brothers met the UPA ministers and senior officials to press their point in the case.
On the formation of the ministers’ panel, the sources said, “Concerns were expressed in different quarters that the interests of the power sector, especially state-owned NTPC, were being compromised by the petroleum ministry in the Ambani gas dispute case. The panel would help in representing the government’s case in one voice.”
The other members of the panel include petroleum minister Murli Deora, law minister Verrappa Moily and power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the country’s top two law officers — the attorney-general and solicitor-general — have advised NTPC to move the Supreme Court at once to secure gas at a contracted price from Reliance Industries.
It seems Mr. Murli Deora has allowed his friendship with Mukesh Ambani to cloud his thoughts and prevent him in taking proper decision.
I was under the impression that he was an efficient man at the way he handled an important Ministry like the petroleum at the time the price of oil had gone through the roof and was selling at $150.. per barrel.
He is thinking that the government of India and Reliance Industries are one and the same. He thinks anything which benefits Reliance is for the good of Government of India. he has been ably assisted by Pranab Mukherjee who was instrumental in bending all rules to benefit Reliance when Dhirubhai was at the helm of Reliance and Pranab was the Finance Minister.
Reliance's rapid rise was made possible by Pranab's largess to Dhirubhai.
Now these two have combined in "group of Ministers" who fixed the price at $4.2 to gift Mukesh a large bonus and repeat history.
We should now have a new slogan "Reliance Industries is India and India is Reliance Industries"
What our group of Ministers are forgetting is that by giving gas at $2.34 to RNRL and NTPC, they can supply power at cheaper rate to the public who actually are India and not Mukesh Ambani and Murli Deora
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2 comments:
My congrats in speaking out what the most of Indians have started to feel in this entire RIL & Ministry’s ball dance.
The shifting stands of Ministry and Deora himself, the VK Sibal statements, the incorrect projection to the PMO and the Indian public by and large, the deplorable stance of not honouring its committed contract to supply gas to NTPC which was entered after global bidding, the flimsy grounds on which it has been denying bankable guarantee to Anil's Dadri power project which could have been functional till now and would have been contributing around 7800 Mw of power to eliminate the power problems of most of North India...oh god, I can just keep on punching these keys on my keyboard and the biggest scam of RIL and Petroleum ministry's would still be far from being spelled out.
It is such a shame that these kind of 'right in the face' sliminess is happening right in front of this country's Government and still the right picture is not being accepted by the people who have been trusted with running this country. The RIL and Ministry stand of 'Gas is a national resource' is nothing but a weak and desperate attempt to shield the much bigger picture, which the Indians could see till now.
Would love to visit ur blog again and read more on this unnecessarily complicated issue. All the best.
Amit
Reliance is not India and India is not Reliance.Empowered group of ministers(Egom)has raised the price in favor of RIL forgetting the interest of common man in India.
all ministries wants to transport KG gas to far away places like Gujarat,Latur in Maharashtra,Dadri in UP,Chennai and trivandrum.But they dont want to supply Krishna Godavari basin gas to Krishna or Godavari or Guntur or other districts in AP in and around KG basin area area.
The development of the local area is the natural right in the allotment of natural resources
Hamara Bharat does not mean Ambani brothers..
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