Karnataka - Bellary   

CBI probe sought into gas extraction deal

BELLARY: Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, MP and deputy general secretary of the Communist Party of India, on Sunday accused the Union Government of conniving with Reliance India Ltd. (RIL) in granting permission to extract natural gass in the Krishna-Godavari region and drawing up pricing formula, and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the transaction.

Addressing presspersons here, he said: “This appears to be a bigger scam than the 2G spectrum, especially in the wake of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on allowing a rise in the initial capital investment on the natural gas extraction project in Krishna-Godavari region, which will result in a huge loss to the exchequer.”

Taking exception to the appointment of a Group of Ministers (GoM), instead of an experts' committee, for drawing up the pricing formula, he said the move would only help the Reliance group earn huge profits. Mr. Reddy questioned the propriety of Union Government allowing RIL to retain the two blocks where gas extraction was not undertaken and wanted to know why the Government was lenient towards RIL.

He charged the Union Government with trying to bring down the number of poor people on record. “The Government may succeed in bringing down the number of poor families by manipulating the records. But, such a move will only deprive the poor people of various benefits and push them towards further misery,” he said.

“Several scams are surfacing each day. The reports of Ministers' involvement in these scams are also increasing. But, no action has been initiated against anyone. Besides, the Centre has failed to check the rising prices of essential commodities,” he said and added that the party would soon launch a movement.

Mr. Reddy was here to address the party workers and attend the opening ceremony of the office of “Visalandhra”, a Telugu daily.

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