By IANS,
New Delhi: Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora Thursday ruled out a state takover of the distribution of Krishna-Godavari (KG) gas, over which the Ambani brothers are locked in a bitter legal battle, and said the government will do “everything” to protect its rights over gas allocation.
“We have nothing to do with a private dispute. However, we have everything to do to protect the government’s legal rights on gas allocation,” Deora told the Rajya Sabha during a calling attention motion by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Tapan Kumar Sen.
He said the Mumbai High Court judgement of June 15 which stated that the agreement between Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and his younger brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural Gas Resources (RNRL) stood “has implications on the government’s right to fix prices and we have filed a Special Leave Petition in this regard”.
“The old days of nationalisation are gone,” Deora said while responding to suggestions made by MPs for a state takeover of the gas distribution.
Reliance Industries started production of gas at the offshore block, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, in April with 31 million units a day, which is slated to go up to as much as 80 million units within a year.
Last month, the Bombay High Court had asked Reliance Industries to supply 28 million units of gas from the fields to RNRL for 17 years at $2.34 per unit after assigning 12 million units to a state-run power utility NTPC.
But Reliance Industries challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, which heard the case July 20 and fixed Sep 1 as the next date of hearing. It also asked all parties to file their replies on the government position on the matter by then.
The minister had earlier made a statement on the subject in the Lok Sabha Monday, which had not assuaged opposition members who disrupted parliament proceedings during the day.
“To say things like ‘this fellow is in this fellow’s pocket’ will get us nowhere,” Deora said Thursday, referring to allegations that he was close to Mukesh Ambani.
Taking part in the discussion, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja said the government “should not be at the mercy of anyone”.
“Does the government have that power?” he asked.
Interestingly, Parimal Nathwani, an independent member from Jharkhand, got up to participate in the debate even as he said that he had been associated with Reliance Industries.
“The company won in a global bid. ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corp) and Gail also took part in the bid. The contractor has no role in the pricing,” he asserted.