By Sujeet Kumar, IANS
Raipur : The opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh has asked for a white paper on all memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the government scrapped deals worth Rs.100 billion.
Stating that the state government had executed forged deals to claim that the state was emerging as a haven for investors under BJP rule, Congress spokesperson Ramesh Varlyani said: “This BJP government has been thoroughly exposed for signing forged deals one after another with players in the steel and power sector to show that it was working for industrial revolution in the state.”
The Congress got the opportunity to sharpen its knives against the government Monday when the State Investment Promotion Board presided over by Chief Minister Raman Singh scrapped MoUs with 18 private players. The pacts promised to bring in investments worth over Rs.100 billion in the state’s steel and power sectors but the projects failed to move.
Congress leader and former chief minister Ajit Jogi said the decision vindicated what he had been saying all along – “that the saffron government was involved in forged MoUs to claim that Chhattisgarh had emerged as investors’ haven since Dec 2003 when the BJP came to power”.
“The BJP government should immediately come out with a white paper on all MoUs made during the saffron government,” Jogi told IANS.
He added that major MoUs worth millions of rupees with several companies were signed during Raman Singh’s foreign trip to the US and Britain but had now been scrapped.
“He should explain the reasons for such forged MoUs,” Jogi said.
The MoUs scrapped include one with Texas PowerGen, US, that signed a deal with the government in June 2005 in Florida to bring in Rs.55 billion for a 1,320 MW power plant and a sponge iron unit. But the company made no effort at all to begin the project.
Others in the list include London-based Farrell Engineering, Akshya Investment Limited (Raipur), Vandana Energy and Steel (Raipur), National Steel and Agro (Mumbai), Aryan Steel and Power Ltd (Bilaspur), Alliance Integrated Metallic (New Delhi), Magnum Steel (New Delhi) and JPT Metal Industries (Kolkata).