Cong Flays Bjp 'Haste' On Power Guarantees

The Congress yesterday attacked the Vajpayee government for extending counter-guarantees to three mega-power projects without waiting for project basics to be finalised.

Hinting that the counter-guarantees were undue favours to promoters of the three projects _ the Hinduja project at Vishakhapatnam, the Mittal project at Bhadrawati and the ST-CMS project in Tamil Nadu _ AICC economic affairs secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "There is something more to this than meets the eye."

Alleging that the government had "completely reversed" the policy on counter-guarantees, Ramesh said the Hinduja project had neither a coal supply agreement nor an agreement for its transport. The Mittal project did not have the defence ministry's clearance for a coal mine and the ST-CMS project had issues outstanding with financial institutions and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, he added.

 

Previous governments gave counter-guarantees to the Enron and GVK projects only after all details had been tied up and the projects were set for financial closure, he pointed out.

"But this government has changed this sound policy. It has extended counter-guarantees without waiting for project basics to be finalised," Ramesh said.

Ramesh said the BJP's haste showed "how desperate the government has become to show that it is working".