The government has decided to collate all contracts awarded to Anil Ambani led Reliance Group during UPA era. Preliminary enquiries has revealed that contracts worth 1, 00,000 crore were awarded to Anil Ambani’s businesses in last seven years of UPA government. The data is being collated from key ministries such as power, telecom, road transport and highways as well as government entities like the National Highways Authority of India, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. “All these projects were with the government agencies. We are looking at the processing time that went into these projects, and whether due processes were followed,” said an official.
The official has found many discrepancies in the deals awarded to Anil Ambani’s companies in the field of infrastructure and telecommunications. The deals to these companies were awarded in record time and they had grown exponentially in the infamous second term of UPA government. “The biggest spurt in growth was in Reliance Infrastructure, which by 2011 had transformed from an electricity distribution company to India’s largest infrastructure company within five years. Nearly 12 projects worth over Rs 16,500 crore were initiated, making Reliance Infrastructure the largest private developer of roads in the country. All this is being looked into,” said the government official.
The government is also seeking the details of the contracts awarded to the group by Maharashtra government in more than decade a of Congress rule in the state. The deals awarded to major companies of Anil Ambani led Reliance Group which includes Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Media-Works is being examined. Reliance group won 70,000 crore deal in power sector alone including power plants in Madhya Pradesh as well as many deals in infrastructure like Mumbai Metro’s line 1, Delhi Airport Metro Express line and road construction on Delhi-Agra, Bengaluru-Chennai, Pune-Satara and Jaipur-Bikaner segments.
The idea is to put the business deals Anil Ambani led Reliance group got during UPA government to give public a perspective on that every business house gets deals during any government. It is obvious to award contracts to companies with huge capital therefore things could be done on time. Congress party has accused Modi government for crony capitalism without naming single beneficiary on the side of government going to the extent of terming the NDA ‘Ambani-Adani ki sarkar’, most importantly in Rafale deal. The Government and Dassault Aviation have repeatedly made it clear that ministry has no role in choosing offset partners. Dassault Aviation was and is free to chose offset partners of 58,000 crore Rafale deal. The company has to invest 50 percent of the deal as offset investment to the companies of India. The company has chosen BTSL, Kinetic, Mahindra and many other companies. Anil Ambani led Reliance Defense was just one of more than 70 companies with which Dassault Aviation has signed offset deals. The company is looking for more partners because the value of offset which is almost 29,000 crore is completed yet. The deal with Reliance was just 10 percent of offset. “We’re in talks with about 100 Indian firms, including around 30 with which we’ve already confirmed partnerships,” said Dassault CEO Eric Trappier.