Chennai: In the wake of the indictment of the Adani group by the United States District Court, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji on Thursday said there was no commercial link between the Tamil Nadu state discom and the Adani group of companies in any manner.
The US court had said, “Following the promise of bribes to Indian government officials, in or about and between July 2021 and February 2022, electricity distribution companies for the States and regions of Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh entered into PSAs with SECI under the Manufacturing Linked Project.”
This had triggered charges of a likely deal with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), the State discom and Adani group. Incidentally, a few months ago, Gautam Adani had reportedly made a flying visit to Chennai at night and had an unpublicised meeting with a member of Chief Minister M K Stalin’s family.
Asked about this the US Court indictment, the Electricity Minister, flatly denied any commercial links between TANGEDCO and Adani group. “I am making it clear that as far as the Tamil Nadu Electricity Department was concerned, there has been no commercial link with the Adani group of firms over the last three years. There is no link whatsoever with the Adani group in any manner,” Senthilbalaji told journalists in his native Karur district.
The Minister referred to social media posts on the issue and said, taking into account the energy requirements of Tamil Nadu, the Government had entered into memorandums of understanding with companies under the control of the Department of Energy of the Central Government, to procure electricity.
The State had entered into a MoU with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) Ltd. This was just one among the MoUs with Central Government owned firms.
The SECI Ltd, he said, had entered into MoUs with firms producing electricity to supply power to the needy States. Tamil Nadu had entered into an agreement with SECI Ltd for purchasing electricity for 1500 MW.
“The procurement price is only Rs.2.61 per unit of electricity, which is very low. In contrast, during the erstwhile AIADMK regime, it was being procured at Rs.7 per unit,” the Minister said.
