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Maharashtra politicians wrangle over terms of Enron probe

Shiv Kumar, in Bombay

The proposed judicial probe into the controversial Enron power deal remains entangled in red tape because Maharashtra's politicians are unable to decide on the terms of inquiry for the one-man commission.

Three days after the government nominated retired Supreme Court judge Sudhakar Kurdukar to conduct the probe, it is still not clear what he will inquire into.

The ruling coalition partners, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, have not been able to decide this due to their political compulsions, according to government sources.

Even the appointment of Kurdukar was not smooth.

The NCP and the Left parties, which are also part of the ruling coalition, did not want Kurkudar. The imbroglio had kept the matter hanging since August when the government decided to hold a judicial inquiry into the Enron deal.

The NCP opposed attempts by the Congress to probe the power purchase agreement signed between Enron and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

The PPA was originally signed in 1991 by the then government of the undivided Congress led by current NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Then Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao ratified it.

The $3 billion Enron project is in limbo with the MSEB, the sole buyer of power, being unable to pay for it. Enron's plant, which initially generated 740 MW of power in the first phase, had its capacity enhanced to generate 1,444 MW.

Its original schedule was to attain full capacity of 2,184 MW in October this year after the completion of its second phase. But the plant at Dabhol has been shut down after MSEB stopped buying power.

At present, however, the Congress and the NCP are jointly backing the probe, saying the Enron fiasco was entirely due to the revised PPA signed by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Bombay in 1994.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and BJP's Gopinath Munde were in charge of negotiations with the officials of the US power firm. The re-negotiated deal was ratified and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee provided counter-guarantees to Enron just before the government resigned in 1996.

The judicial inquiry follows an earlier probe by Madhav Godbole, a retired bureaucrat who had faulted the PPA and alleged that the US-based company had padded up costs through back-to-back agreements it signed with suppliers of naphtha, the main fuel for the plant.

Even though no brief has been prepared for the proposed judicial committee, government sources say the bundling of naphtha supplies with generation of power would feature prominently.

Indo-Asian News Service

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