The Aam Aadmi Party demands that the BJP’s central government should immediately terminate the contract of the Reliance Industries for the KG-D6 gas-fields, given the frequent gross violations of its contractual obligations by this company. Though the government’s decision to slap an additional penalty of $ 579 million on Reliance Industries is a step in the right direction, but it will not be able to rein in this habitual defaulter company, which has shown scant disregard for the rule of law and natural resources of the country.
The AAP would like to remind the government that the Reliance has shamelessly refused to pay any penalty in the past too, and has dragged the matter to internal arbitration forums. The central government should also keep in mind that the Anti Corruption Bureau of Delhi is currently probing the wrongdoing in this contract after it was directed by the AAP government to register an FIR onFebruary 11.
The RIL has committed enough and glaring willful improprieties in the execution of its KG-D6 contract that the Narendra Modi government has sufficient grounds to terminate its contract and allow any other company or the government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to produce gas from these fields.
The Reliance has created an artificial shortage of natural gas in this country by bringing down the production from KG-D6 fields to below 10%, with the sole aim of forcing the government to import it at a very high price. Infact this company has deliberately kept its production much below the target since 2010-11.
The government should also immediately recover the extra area which the RIL has wrongly retained in this basin, much more than what it was legally allowed to retain. This company has wrongly declared the entire 7,645 sq km of KG-D6 block as discovery area, whereas its Production Sharing Contract (PSC) provided for quickly ring-fencing the discovery area. All areas where discoveries have not been made are to be relinquished to the government.
The government should also consider that the ONGC filed a petition in the Delhi High Court on May 15 against Reliance, accusing it of exploiting substantial gas from its natural gas block. The ONGC has stated at least three wells drilled by the RIL on the boundary of the KG-D6 block are within a few hundred metres of its gas fields. ONGC has said that the fields are connected and the RIL is exploiting the situation.
Reliance is an extra-constitutional authority.
It does not believe in following the laws of the land as it has both the Congress and BJP in its pocket.
It is about time it is brought in line.
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