Gas row: Ministers' group to monitor govt stand

Pranab Mukherjee to head the group

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a ministers’ group to monitor the government’s stand on the Ambani gas dispute in the Supreme Court.

The grouping will be headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and will include Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, a source close to the development said.

“It is not a Group of Ministers but a core grouping to monitor the government’s stand in the Supreme Court,” the source said, adding that the prime minister has backed the official stand.

The decision followed a meeting that Deora had with the prime minister yesterday to explain in detail the impact of the June 15 Bombay High Court order that upheld the validity of that part of the Ambani family MoU that seeks to divide gas from all the Reliance Industries fields between companies run by brothers Mukesh and Anil.

Deora is believed to have told the prime minister that any MoU which appropriates the gas in complete disregard of the government policies would be detrimental to national interests and rights of government under PSC, necessitating filing of a Special Leave Petition in the apex court.

The source said the minister also explained that the pricing of gas from RIL’s KG-D6 field and its utilisation was not approved by his ministry suo motto but was approved by an eight-member Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Mukherjee.