LUCKNOW: The differences between the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government and the United Progressive Alliance over the supply of gas for Reliance Energy's Dadri power project became sharper on Sunday when Uttar Pradesh Development Council Chairman and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh threatened to stall proceedings during the winter session of Parliament if the stalemate continued.

Mr. Singh urged Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to stop discriminating against Uttar Pradesh and fix gas rates to expedite the supply of the critical input for the gas-based project.

He said the Centre was creating hurdles even after Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani had agreed to supply the gas for the Dadri project, which was being developed by his brother, Anil Ambani, the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Energy.

Accusing the UPA Government of politicising the issue, Mr. Singh said the Samajwadi Party would launch an agitation.

Dominating function

The standoff over the supply of gas for the project dominated the proceedings at the function on Sunday to mark the signing of the power purchase agreement (PPA) and supplemental implementation agreement between the Uttar Pradesh Government and Reliance Energy Limited, GVK Group and Lanco Kondapalli.

Both Utar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Uttar Pradesh Development Council (UPDC) Chairman made no bones of their grouse against the Congress-led UPA Government and their political adversaries, who had said that the State Government's initiative in the power sector was an eyewash.

In his address at the function, Mr. Yadav asked the UPDC Chairman to take up the gas supply issue in Parliament.

Mr. Yadav said the power purchase agreements with the country's three leading industrial houses dispels all false notions of the State Government's commitment. He said within three years Uttar Pradesh would become self-sufficient in power. However, he regretted the fact that the State's Opposition parties were also opposing the Dadri project.

He said that even as the Samajwadi Party Government was fulfilling its responsibility towards the people, the UPA Government was busy discriminating against the state.

Committed

The Reliance Energy Chairman, Mr. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, who was present in the signing ceremony, hoped that the obstacles would be removed and gas would flow from Dhirubhai I and III gas fields in Krishna- Godavari basin to Dhirubhai Ambani Energy City in Dadri for the project.

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