Rising its pitch against large-scale corruption, especially in the power sector in Jharkhand, the State BJP said on Saturday that the Government was encouraging a new kind of mafia at the cost of compromising with the environment and rich natural resources in the State. The BJP alleged that the Government was trying to favour some corporate firm for a huge power deal in the State.
In the presence of Opposition leader and Former CM Arjun Munda and State BJP president Ravindra Rai, senior BJP leader Saryu Roy showed a letter he wrote to the Governor about the irregularities conducted in the tender process of a power deal that might amount to over Rs 8500 crores. The leaders alleged that the whole process of delaying the tender was to benefit some corporate firm and get “short term gains”.
The letter of Roy seeks cancellation of a tender issued by the incumbent government on October 9, last year for establishment of a 2x660 MW thermal power plant in Patratu on PPP mode by extracting coal from Banhardi coal block of Jharkhand and entering into a power purchase agreement. It states that the whole process of tender was malicious and the Jharkhand Energy Development Corporation limited (JEDCl) a Govt of Jharkhand undertaking was favouring a particular private firm at the cost of natural resources of the State.
Giving details of the alleged irregularities, the letter states that the Banhardi mines was allotted for setting up a power plant through dispensation. “The then electricity board invited expression of interest for setting up a plant under PPP mode on October 9, 2013 and the whole process was to be completed with the Power Purchase deal to be signed on June 20, 2014. However, the last date for accepting applications for the tender was changed five times from 25/11/2013 to 29/04/2014, the date coincidentally came at a time when Model code of conduct was effective in the State,” it said.
Questioning the timing and circumstances of changing the dates for five times Roy said that such actions were highly dubious. Now when Assembly polls are at hand the process of preparing comparative details of applicants was being accelerated by seeking several sorts of details and clarifications from the applicants, he stated.
Roy said that even the volume and quality of coal in the Banhardi mines was not known and in this condition if a firm gets the tender it might take undue advantage of the resources of the state in the long run. He also state that the scope of competition in the tender process had been constrained as the firms’ minimum turnover has been fixed to Rs 8500 crores in the last five years and thus only huge corporate firms would be able to take part in the process.
Elucidating various other loopholes of the process Roy alongwith Munda and Rai said that the tender must be cancelled immediately in public interest as it was only meant to fulfill the greed of the government and encourage large-scale corruption in the power sector.
Munda said that the government had already lost the trust of people and it did not have any right to stay even for a minute. He said that the BJP would continue its tirade against corruption to stop the ruling coalition send the state further down in the quagmire of illicit practices.