By IANS,
Hyderabad : Even as the two Ambani brothers are locked in a legal battle over supply and price of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, the Andhra Pradesh government has sought its “due share” of the hydrocarbon asset.
In a meeting here with members of 13th Finance Commission, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said they must intervene in the matter as the people of the state were also entitled to reap the benefits of the natural resource, found off the state’s coast.
“It is unfortunate that our state does not get any share in the royalty or in the profit share. We do not enjoy any priority in allocation or pricing. This is completely unjust,” the chief minister said.
“The extreme interpretation of the constitutional provisions about offshore resources should not be invoked to deny the people of our state their due share,” he added.
During the meeting, which included Finance Commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar, Reddy called for changes in gas distribution mechanism to ensure that the gas requirements of the state’s industry, especially electricity projects were met.
“The state also requires gas to supply the same to every household.”
He said there were varying estimates about the gas availability in the Krishna-Godavari basin. Reliance Industries has already started commercial exploitation of the gas from what is called the D6 block.
The first landfall point for the gas in the Krishna-Godavari basin is in the East Godavari district of the state.