Sri Lanka's JVP vows to cancel Adani wind energy project if elected

The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) on Monday vowed to cancel the Adani Group's wind power project in Sri Lanka if it gets elected in the presidential election scheduled for the weekend.

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the presidential candidate from the broader front National People's Power (NPP), told a political chat show here that they would annul the project.

Asked if the project posed a threat to the island nation's energy sector sovereignty, Dissanayake said: Yes. We will definitely cancel it as it threatens our energy sovereignty."

The JVP, which led a bloody anti-India rebellion in the island nation between 1987 and 1990 following India's direct intervention in the Lankan civil war through the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, is believed to be leading in the unofficial polls ahead of the September 21 election.

The JVP dubbed the Indo-Lanka Accord a betrayal of the nation and killed the then-ruling party members, supporters and other political activists who supported the pact signed between then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and JR Jayewardena, the president of Sri Lanka at that time.

The Adani Group has faced fundamental rights litigation in Sri Lanka's supreme court after it got approval for the proposed construction of a wind power project in the island nation's northeastern regions of Mannar and Pooneryn.

The Adani Group was set to invest over USD 440 million in the 20-year agreement for the development of 484 megawatts of wind power in the region.

Petitioners have raised environmental concerns and lack of transparency in the bidding process to grant Adani Green Energy the go-ahead.

Petitioners have also argued that the agreed tariff of USD 0.0826 per kWh would be a loss to Sri Lanka and should be lowered to USD 0.005 per kWh.