The war of words between Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily and CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta over the KG Basin controversies continues unabated. Terming as misleading and malicious Moily’s allegation that the CPI leader was “swayed by vested interests,” Dasgupta on Thursday challenged the Petroleum Minister to name “the vested interest” he was representing.
Refuting Moily’s charges, the CPI veteran said the Minister’s statement was a “case of cynical hypocrisy” and “deliberate ignorance to shift the burden” on officers.
“The point in question is that Jaipal Reddy had issued the order imposing penalty on RIl (Reliance Industries limited) for deliberately reducing the production level. It is amazing that he (Moily) says that the file did not come to him. The matter was in the public domain. Everybody knew the penalty that had been imposed but the Minister who succeeds Jaipal Reddy does not know the matter. It is a deliberate ignorance to shift the burden on to his officers,” Dasgupta said in a statement.
“It is all well known that Reliance refused to pay penalty, asked for arbitration. Even two arbitrators had been appointed by both the parties. Even lawyers have been appointed by the Ministry of Petroleum. In fact, the two judges were involved in discussion to nominate the third. Such a long, long process that has taken place during the time of his predecessor cannot be unknown to him. The Government is a continuing process. When a new Minister takes office he must know what his predecessor has done,” Dasgupta said while questioning Moily’s versions that the file has not yet reached him.
Referring to Moily’s earlier interviews with media, Dasgupta pointed out that the Minister favoured negotiation over the ongoing adjudication with RIl on the one billion dollar imposed on the company for not meeting the production target of natural gas in KG Basin.
“The most intriguing is that on the one hand he says that the file was not put up to him, on the other, he makes a public statement debunking arbitration. It is a case of cynical hypocrisy. Therefore, it is not a case of ignorance but a deliberate attempt to sabotage the process of realising the penalty and undermining arbitration.
“The second question that arises is that why he has not given the notice for penalty for the year of 2012- 13 when the production had further declined. In fact, if the calculation is correctly made, the penalty should have been 1.7 billion dollars. Why he is closing his eyes to further sharp decline in the current year which is almost 19 per cent of the approved level of production,” shot back Dasgupta.
The CPI veteran said that Moily was dilly-dallying on the issue of not retrieving the 6,000 square km area of KG Basin from RIl. “In case of relinquishment of the area given to Reliance, the CAG asked for vacation of at least 50 per cent of the allotted area. The Director General of Hydrocarbon has submitted his report categorically stating that 83 per cent of the area should be surrendered. Why he has not taken any action so far. Why he is allowing Reliance to occupy 6000 sq km area illegally,” asked the CPI leader.
“Therefore, the collusion of the Minister with the corporate (Mukesh Ambani) is clear. He wants to condone the criminality of underproduction and consequent damage to the Indian economy and allow the corporate to grab 6,000 sq km in violation of the contract,” said Dasgupta.