The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday exposed the shocking details of another Modi Adani Scamgate. The party revealed how Adani struck a deal with the Raman Singh-led BJP Government in the state of Chhattisgarh in 2017 through which the state government was forced to buy electricity at an expensive rate from the firm. AAP Senior Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Sanjay Singh held a press conference, a third in the series in which he exposed the undue favour that was given to the Adani Group by the PM Shri Narendra Modi-led Central Government. Attacking the BJP he said, “PM Modi subverted all laws to hand over coal mines to Adani. The BJP’s Raman Singh government gave 100 percent of Gare Palma coal mine to Adani, while a private company’s share can only be 26 percent.”
He said that the ‘AdaniG’ scam is like a Netflix series, with the third episode being released today. In the previous two episodes, he explained how two coal blocks were allocated to the Rajasthan Government so that the coal could be used in its power plants to provide cheap electricity to the people of Rajasthan. But the Rajasthan Government also gave both these coal blocks to the Adani Group. Now, a similar situation has come to light in Chhattisgarh, where the state government has given a coal mine located within the state so that it could use the cheaper coal in the state’s power plant in order to provide cheaper electricity for the people. Singh noted that the Chhattisgarh government had been allocated coal mines within the state, unlike the Rajasthan government, which had been allocated mines in Chhattisgarh, so the deal could have been a good one, in terms of saving money, time and wastage during transportation.
Like in the first two episodes of this series, Shri Sanjay Singh said that the people of the country will be shocked to see how the Modi Government once again went beyond its comfort to benefit the Adani Group. He alleged that there is an ecosystem to ensure that Adani has the first right over every resource in this country.
He explained that in 2014, after an order of the Supreme Court, the allocation of all the coal blocks to private players was scrapped, after an enormous scam was unearthed. Under the same provision of the court, the Gare Palma coal block in Chhattisgarh was also taken away from private companies. The mine is also listed in the SC order that has the names of 214 mining leases that were scrapped. The court had asked the Centre to make new rules under which these mines were to be allotted to private players and the Centre in 2015 brought out the new act. The new act state that a PSU will own at least 74 percent of the stakes in any allocation of mines, he added.
But in 2017, Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company Ltd (CSPGCL) issued a letter of award for the coal block on June 24, 2017, to Adani Enterprises. This was done by the Raman Singh-led BJP government and some of the terms of this deal are absolutely shocking and in violation of the act brought out by the Centre in 2015, he said. One of the conditions of this deal is that the state government will be bound to buy a certain amount of coal from the Adani Group and if this is not followed, then it will be bound to pay a penalty to the Adani Group. He added that basically the Chhattisgarh state government was forced to buy coal that is generated in its coal mine from the Adani Group and the failure to do this would penalise them. Further as per the tender, “AEL may form a 100 per cent owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) to act as MDO and sign the CMSA with CSPGCL”. He pointed out that this is in gross violation of the SC order as well as the act introduced by the Central Government in 2015.
To give this entire issue a context, the AAP Rajya Sabha MP revealed that in the state of Chhattisgarh, there are also coal mines that are controlled by Coal India Limited (CIL), and there is this one mine that has been given to the Adani Group. He said that in the state, coal is given by CIL to the Chhattisgarh state government for Rs 827 per tonne, and the coal that comes from the Adani Group’s mine costs the state government Rs 1269 per tonne. He pointed out that the coal coming from the Adani Group is more expensive by nearly Rs 450. He also said that as per the deal between the state government and the firm, the Adani Group is allowed to mine up to 232 million tonnes of coal. He also added that of all the MDOs that have been signed with private players, 56 percent of them are with the Adani Group. He also went on to say that if the profit of the Adani Group on this 232 million tonnes of coal is calculated then it will be gaining Rs 25,000 crore from just this one coal block.
Shri Sanjay Singh hit out at the PM Shri Narendra Modi-led government and said that it is clear that this Central Government has gone out of its way to benefit the friend of the Prime Minister. He asked when the state government has the option of buying coal for Rs 827 per tonne from CIL, why is it being forced to buy coal for Rs 1269 from the Adani Group? He further asked how when the Adani Group was so brazenly acting against the Supreme Court order and the Govt of India Act, then why has there been no raids on the group by the ED or the CBI. He asked the Prime Minister whether the Adani Group has been given a free card to loot the resources of the country?
Shri Sanjay Singh concluded by saying that AAP demands a probe into this entire scam orchestrated by the BJP-led Central Government and the Adani Group and he added that he has the required documents to prove this scam as well. He also said that he has asked for a meeting with the senior officials of CBI and ED to explain this scam and submit the required documents. He added that he has not yet been allotted a time for the meeting. He, however, said that he has been given an appointment by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on March 13th and he will go to their office and submit the documents related to this matter.
