BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet, headed by the Chief Minister, Babulal Gaur, on Tuesday gave clearance for the proposed 1000 MW coal- based power project in Khandwa district. "Since the Gujarat Government was not showing any interest after signing an MoU with the Government of Madhya Pradesh for jointly setting up a 2000 MW power plant in Khandwa district, the Cabinet took the decision,'' the State Minister for Industry and Commerce, Kailash Chawla, said.

Briefing newspersons here on Tuesday evening, he said the proposed project would be taken up by the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company and efforts would be made to secure a loan from the Power Finance Corporation to cover 80 per cent of the project cost. The Company would be meeting the remaining cost of the project by securing loans from other financial institutions as well as through its own resources.

Mr. Chawla said that the State Government would also come forward and extend financial help if there was any gap in meeting the cost of the project. At the same time, he added, efforts would be made to give the mega-power project status to the proposed coal- based power project at Khandwa. He said the work on the project was likely to begin during the current financial year itself.

Mr. Chawla further said that the State Cabinet had agreed to give a counter-guarantee for the Maheshwar dam project upstream of Sardar Sarovar project in Madhya Pradesh, which was being promoted by S. Kumar group's Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Limited. This was a 400 MW project and was estimated to cost Rs. 2000 crores.

Mr. Chawla said that the Cabinet decided to take a lenient stand with regard to the S. Kumars Group despite the fact that it had been declared a wilful defaulter by the State Industrial Development Corporation as it had failed to pay back loans taken from MPSIDC. He said that the State Government had tried to seek the help of the Power Finance Corporation to overcome the hurdles delaying the project. Earlier, the State Government had decided in principle to give a counter guarantee of over Rs. 400 crores to the Power Finance Corporation with the condition that the promoters of Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation would pay all their outstanding dues to MPSIDC. Asked what would be the State Government's stand vis-à-vis the other defaulters, Mr. Chawla said that their proposals would be considered on a case-to case basis. With the latest Cabinet decision, it will now be possible to resume work on the Maheshwar project by November this year, Mr. Chawla said.

He said that keeping in view the provisions of the Right to Information Act 2005, the State Information Commission would be set up. The Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners would be appointed by a committee which would be constituted soon. to be appointed by the Governor and headed by the Chief Minister. He said that the State Cabinet had decided to extend the deadline for filling the vacancies for those belonging to the SC/ST and other backward classes. The deadline for filling the vacant reserved posts had been extended from July 31, 2005 to December 31, 2005.

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