NEW DELHI: Congress spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil on Monday called for scrapping recently announced Samudra Manthan scheme, the national offshore exploration scheme, to dole out Rs 84,084 crore to Adani and strengthening the public sector ONGC by diverting this money to it.
He told a press conference here that whenever Prime Minister Modi announces a new policy, scheme or sector, the beneficiary is always Adani. Why should tax payer’s money be misused to benefit this one private company, he asked. The Samudra Manthan scheme envisages 50% government support under the scheme.
Gohil said The Samudra Manthan scheme is to facilitate Gautambhai’s Adani Well Spun Exploration Limited. Adani holds 65% stake in AWEL which he purchased in 2005. The rest 35% stake is owned by Well Spun Group.
Decoding Samudra Manthan for Adani Scheme Samudra Manthan will spell Amrit Kaal for Adani Group, he said the scheme envisages the government to bear 50 per cent of cost for every deep sea well drilling, 2D and 3D seismic surveys, artificial intelligence-led reprocessing of existing geological data, development of offshore infrastructure and all related business activities that Adani led AWEL will do.
Oil exploration is an extremely expensive business as on an average, one deep sea well exploration itself costs more than Rs 1100 crores, Gohil said Adani’s AWEl has exploration rights in B 9 cluster, MB-OSN-2005/2 block of Mumbai Offshore Basin, Tapi Daman and Kutch. AWEL has announced that it will begin major oil and gas exploration in next few months. So, now Adani’s AWEl will be able begin its’ business activities which will be funded by the government of India. AWEL will have access to use all government resources for oil exploration including a pipeline.
Why isn’t ONGC being given the primary role in this national mission? Why is Modi government damaging interests of their own ONGC which already possesses decades of exploration expertise to benefit one private company, Gohil asked.
He said Government of India will pay for all risks that Adani’s AWEL will take but all profits will be of AWEL only. He said crores of Indian youth are unemployed, scouting for jobs. Still, why has Narendra Modi not allocated Rs 84,084 crores for ONGC and announced government jobs within ONGC but has cunningly paved way for Adani.
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