Modi government has started collecting all the deals and projects, awarded to Anil Ambani’s Reliance group, during the tenure of UPA, reports Economic Times. This is to counter the charges levied by Congress on BJP of being a crony capitalist and favouring conglomerates like Reliance by keeping at stake national interest especially in the Rafale deal.
Rahul Gandhi had done a press conference on October 11, where he claimed that PM Modi’s government had pickpocketed public money, and had given that money to Anil Ambani. An OpIndia fact-check of the allegations had demolished many of his oft-repeated claims regarding the Rafale deal.
The government is reportedly focusing on six companies of Anil Ambani like Reliance Capital, Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, RCom, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Mediaworks which majorly benefited during UPA.
The preliminary enquiry, according to the report, tells that Rs 100,000 crore-worth projects were awarded to Anil Ambani’s firms in the last seven years of UPA rule in various sectors like Engineering, metro, roads and power. Out of which Rs 77,000 cores were in the power sector alone.
Government is encasing data from ministries like power, telecom, road transport and other government undertakings like Delhi Metro and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and National Highway Development Authority.
The report states that the biggest growth spurt was seen in Reliance Infrastructure limited which, in a span of 5 years during the UPA rule had transformed from a mere electricity distribution company to India’s largest infrastructure company with the help of 12 major contracts worth 16,500 crores from the UPA government.
It undertook Delhi-Agra, Bengaluru- Chennai, Pune- Satara and Jaipur Bikaner road projects along with Delhi Metro Express line and Mumbai Metro line 1. The government has also reportedly asked the Maharashtra government to provide data regarding some of the projects.
A spokesperson from Reliance Infra has been quoted in the report as saying that the company had won all its Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects under the ten year UPA rule from 2004 to 2014. They have also reportedly added that under the current NDA regime they have not participated in any BOT/PPP project.
Anil Ambani and his company have categorically denied the allegations being levelled by Congress and its leaders. Ambani has also filed a Rs 5000 crores defamation suit against Congress mouthpiece national Herald for spreading lies about their company.
