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Prabhu denies Swraj Paul was victimised over refusal to deal with Snamprogetti

R Prabhu, who was fertiliser minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, has denied London-based Indian businessman Swraj Paul's allegation that his licence to set up a fertiliser plant in India was cancelled because he resisted pressure to procure equipment from the Italian firm Snamprogetti, represented in India then by Ottavio Quattrocchi, a friend of the Gandhis.

Swraj Paul's charges were contained in his book, Beyond Boundaries: A Memoir, excerpts from which were quoted by an English daily in India on Friday.

Prabhu said Paul had not taken any step to set up the plant at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh after getting the licence in 1985, and had not even acquired land for the project. He said his repeated requests to Paul to initiate steps to start the project were not heeded.

The project never reached the stage of procuring equipment, and the allegation that he was pressured to procure Snamprogetti's equipment was baseless, Prabhu said.

There was a furore in the Lok Sabha in 1988 when members, cutting across party lines, raised the issue of Paul not setting up the plant even three years after getting the licence and demanded immediate cancellation of the licence, he said, and added that it was only afterwards that the licence was cancelled.

Prabhu pointed out that the licence was later given to another group which implemented the project successfully.

UNI

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