The Congress on Monday raised a din in the Rajya Sabha forcing repeated adjournments in the pre-and post-lunch sessions over alleged anomalies in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation’s (GSPC) KG Basin gas project. The main Opposition party members rushed into the Well shouting slogans demanding a reply from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a discussion on the latest report of CAG listing irregularities. The Congress claimed these irregularities were worth over Rs20,000 crore.
The Government countered and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the CAG report was under the scrutiny of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the State Assembly. Moreover, there was no convention that the Rajya Sabha can discuss a Vidhan Sabha matter, he said. He charged that the Congress was raising this issue to “divert” attention from the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scandal. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said the Congress notice seeking a discussion was under consideration of the Chairman.
As the protesting Congress members did not allow the House to run, Kurien first adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes till 11.30 am, then till noon. Chairman Hamid Ansari also had to adjourn the Question Hour twice as similar scenes were repeated when the House reassembled after the brief breaks. The post-lunch session also saw one adjournment over the issue.
The issue was raised by Congress’s Madhusudan Mistry, who referred to the CAG report on the basin project undertaken by the State Government entity GSPC, and claimed a scam of Rs20,000 crore. His party colleague Anand Sharma said the Government was running away from a discussion on the issue.
“We want this issue to be settled... The matter has to be discussed,” he said.
Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister in 2005 had announced that GSPC had struck 20 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in its KG Basin block. But recoverable reserves have proved just one-tenth of that and GSPC’s borrowings shot up to Rs19,716.27 crore as of March 31, 2015, according to CAG report.