'Congress govt chose not to slap Rs 50cr fine on Reliance SEZ'

The previous Congress government could have slapped a Rs 50-crore penalty on Reliance Haryana SEZ Limited (RHSL) relating to the company's shelved SEZ project but chose not to do so, state Finance and Industries Minister Abhimanyu said today.
Din prevailed in Haryana Assembly today over the Reliance SEZ issue, with the opposition INLD MLAs wanting to know the fate of "tall promises" made by the Congress government in the state about the project bringing in huge investment besides generating job opportunities for the youth.
The matter was raised in the Assembly by Independent MLA Ravinder Machhrouli, who sought to know the present status of the SEZ project and the employment generated by the project.

In his reply, Abhimanyu apprised the House that in the year 2005 the then State Government entered into a MoU with Reliance Industries to set up the Special Economic Zone in the Gurgaon-Jhajjar region.
"A MoU was signed between HSIIDC and Reliance Ventures Limited on December 12, 2005. Based on the decision of the Haryana Cabinet, HSIIDC signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Reliance Ventures Limited on June 19, 2006 for setting up a multi product SEZ over an area of 25000 acres in Gurgaon-Jhajjar. However, it was later decided to shelve the SEZ project and JVA was terminated on August 29, 2014," Abhimanyu said.

Abhimanyu stated that the previous Congress government had promised "lakhs of jobs" and huge investment in the State from the project.

Since the SEZ project was shelved, the question regarding generating any employment does not arise, he added.
Regarding questions raised by the Independent MLA and some MLAs from the main opposition INLD, Abhimanyu informed the House that "no tender/competitive bidding process was followed in firming up the project, but a MoU was signed between the two parties...."
Abhimanyu further stated that many decisions regarding the Reliance SEZ project were taken by the Council of Ministers of the previous Congress government and some even outside the knowledge of the State Cabinet.

He also said that Reliance Industries had returned nearly 1,384 acres of land in Gurgaon that was acquired for its SEZ.
RHSL had last year returned 1,383.68 acres of land in Gurgaon acquired from HSIIDC for setting up SEZs.
Responding to a question raised by an INLD MLA, the Minister said that a penalty of approximately Rs 50 crore could have been slapped by the previous Congress government on the company, but it chose not to do so.
RHSL, was a joint venture between Reliance Ventures Ltd (RVL), RIL's wholly-owned subsidiary, and Government of Haryana through HSIIDC.
The JV was established for development of SEZs/Model Economic Township (MET) project and other infrastructure facilities in Haryana.

The INLD MLAs raised din in the House wanting to know the fate of the directly-purchased land by the company from the farmers.
Responding to this, the Minister said that some issues were still pending in the lower and higher courts and it would not be appropriate to make any comment on these.
"Wherever irregularities are detected, we will probe thoroughly," he assured the Assembly.