BackLeft asks govt to take over marketing &distribution of RIL gas
Left asks govt to take over marketing &distribution of RIL gas
PremiumNew Delhi: Amidst Ambani brothers’ fight, Left MPs on Sunday demanded that government should take over the marketing and distribution of gas produced by RIL to ensure that national asset is not surreptitiously appropriated as “family property".
As many as 30 MPs belonging to the Left parties have said in a letter to the Prime Minister that the government must take over the marketing rights of gas, produced by Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries (RIL) in the Krishna- Godavari (KG) basin, and they also opposed linking its prices with international prices.
“As gas is being produced in our own soil, there is absolutely no justification of pricing it on the basis of linkage with international price of an altogether different product like crude oil as has been done at present by making the gas price at $4.32 per mmbtu," the letter said.
“Hence the present gas price determined by the EGoM must be revised and it should be benchmarked to $2.34 per mmbtu as offered to NTPC by RIL in 2004-05," the letter added.
It said the government’s firm assertion through the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court should be followed up by appropriate executive action on proper distribution mechanism to make the gas available to priority sectors in the country.
In the face of "surreptitious and unauthorised" bid of appropriating the country’s sovereign natural resources as “family property" by some private players as pointed out in government’s affidavit in the apex court, the Left parties said that government must take over distribution and marketing rights of KG-D6 basin gas.
“We urge upon the government to take over the distribution and marketing rights of the KG D6 basin gas at the delivery point so that the same can be distributed and marketed through national gas grid under government control.
“Gas Authority of India (GAIL), a PSU, can be assigned the role of a nodal agency for this purpose," the letter said.
The signatories to the letter include Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat, Basudeb Acharia, Prashant Chatterjee, D Raja.
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