Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday asked Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Sunil Jakhar to explain why he had tried to mislead Punjabis with false claims about alleged scams in the power purchase agreements (PPAs) inked with private power companies by the previous SAD-BJP government when his own government's Power Minister was stating no such irregularity had taken place.
“Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh had made it clear in a press conference yesterday that no irregularity had been found in any of the three PPAs done with private power companies by the erstwhile SAD- BJP government...Rana Gurjit has also made it clear that it is not possible to scrap the PPAs,” said SAD spokesman Maheshinder Singh Grewal. Grewal said that in the light of this contradiction, the PPCC chief should explain why he had indulged in rumour mongering without checking the facts from his own government. He said that forget alleging a scam, Jakhar had also claimed that a third party audit had been ordered to “unmask” the scam. “Now that the Power Minister has debunked the PPCC president's hair brained theories, he should immediately apologise for levelling false allegations against the SAD- BJP government,” said Grewal adding that Jakhar should also learn to do his homework before shooting his mouth off in future.
On the PPAs inked with Sterlite, l&T and GVK for Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and Goindwal thermal plants respectively, Grewal said that the Congress leader should know that they were done as per the directions of the Union Power Ministry under the erstwhile UPA Government.
“The bids for the thermal plants were also conducted as per the UPA government's guidelines and international tenders had been called for the same. Even the PPAs which were inked with the three companies were one of the lowest at the time and had resulted in making Punjab power surplus which was a historic achievement,” he said.