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The Congress party on Tuesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus is on enriching industrialist Gautam Adani in acquiring coal mines.
“The Prime Minister’s single-minded focus on enriching his close friends is once again in evidence, this time in coal mining. Reversing a long standing policy of competitive auctions for coal block allocations, the Modi government has given away lucrative coal blocks to Adani,” Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said.
This has been done even in cases where it was either the sole bidder or in which a related party acted as the second bidder in a thinly-disguised collusion, and in gross violation of the spirit of the Supreme Court’s orders on coal auctions, he added.
“Since the Modi government has begun awarding coal blocks for commercial mining (as opposed to captive mining), the Adani Group has won seven coal blocks through “bidding” in auctions,” Ramesh has alleged.
No response was shared by the Coal Ministry and the Adani Group on the claims made by Congress till the time of going to the press.
Single bidder
Quoting from a publication Adani Watch, Ramesh said that in 2022 the Group was awarded the Gondbahera Ujheni East coal block in Madhya Pradesh, despite it being the sole bidder in the so-called auction.
“The mine had been one of several that had failed to find more than one bidder, when originally auctioned in 2021. However, an Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECoS) set up during the peak of the Covid lockdown in May 2020 had conveniently been empowered to allocate coal blocks that had single bidders, the second time they were auctioned,” he added.
When the Gondbahera Ujheni East block was offered once again for auction, the ECoS awarded it to the single bidder – an Adani Group firm. The ECoS decision came despite the recommendation of an earlier expert committee that any auction with less than three bidders be annulled.
“As previously reported by the publication Scroll, three other coal blocks have been awarded to Adani despite serious allegations of collusion amongst the bidders. In two blocks, North West of Madheri and Gondbahera Ujheni, the Adani Group “bid” against a firm called Cavill Mining that was registered in April 2022, with a paid up capital of ₹1 lakh and no mining experience,” Ramesh said. Cavill is owned by the main promoter of Adicorp, reportedly a long standing friend of Gautam Adani, he added.
“As we had described in our 100 questions to the PM in the Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun (HAHK) series, Adicorp Enterprises is a small Ahmedabad-based firm with revenue of only ₹64 crore that borrowed ₹622 crore from four Adani Group firms and loaned ₹609 crore to Adani Power in 2019-20. On 29 January 2023, the Adani Group claimed that Adicorp was not a related party. Adani and Cavill were the sole bidders for North West of Madheri,” the Congress leader said.
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