Partner Channels: Bill Pay | Health | IT Education | Jobs | Technology | Travel
May 28, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Channels: Astrology | Broadband | Contests | E-cards | Money | Movies | Romance | Search | Wedding | Women Partner Channels: Bill Pay | Health | IT Education | Jobs | Technology | Travel |
||
|
|
||
|
Home >
Money > Business Headlines > Report May 28, 2001 |
Feedback
|
|
|
Scrap Dabhol project, say NRIsFreny Patel Non-resident Indians in the USA have called for the scrapping of the controversial Dabhol Power project, dubbing it as the largest scam India has ever seen. The group of NRIs, under the umbrella 'Enron Action', in their outcry put up on the website www.altindia.net/enron) have stated that under international law, the MSEB can bypass the 'insane' obligations to the DPC only if an Indian court rules that the power purchase agreement and the agreements surrounding it were in violation of Indian law. A court case was filed by Prayas, an NGO, but has been rejected by the Bombay High Court. An appeal against this dismissal is pending before the Supreme Court, the group says. The NRIs group stated that under the laws when the PPA was signed, the agreement required mandatory economic and technical clearance from a statutory body (the Central Electricity Authority), which has been constituted for this purpose. The CEA issued a technical clearance to the DPC power plant, it refused the economic clearance. Rather it was the ministry of finance that looked into and approved the economic issues. The petitioners are falling back on the argument that the "mandatory CEA clearance was the legal safeguard against signing PPAs at exorbitant rates. As this clearance was never received, they conclude the Dabhol PPA has no force in law". The World Bank also categorically stated in its feasibility report in 1993, when it was asked to part fund the project, that it was "not economically viable, and thus could not be financed by the Bank". It went on to say that it "would place a heavy financial burden on the MSEB" because it was "too large for base load operation in the MSEB system". The World Bank letter, written by its India country director Heinz Vergin, identified the need to reshape "the project to serve higher value intermediate load in the western region". The website calls "for transparency, accountability, that lost promise called a democracy". Highlighting the chronology of events and legal suits filed in the past, the website also suggests "a way out" for the Indian state and central governments. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO SEE:
ALSO READ:
|
||||
