The Congress has demanded the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) or a Special Investigation Team monitored by the Supreme Court to probe the alleged scam in the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC).
Citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the performance of public sector undertakings in the BJP-ruled State, the party said the authorities duped the exchequer and “played fraud” with public money to favour a private firm, which assisted GSPC in the Krishna-Godavari Basin gas explorations.
Party leaders Jairam Ramesh and Shaktisinh Gohil told reporters here on Friday that the company, GeoGlobal Resources (India), got undue favours from State-run GSPC.
“Despite six such CAG reports in the past against the GSPC no action was taken against the officials who are responsible for the corruption in GSPC. GSPC was making profits when the Congress was in power,” the leaders said.
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ramesh said GeoGlobal was chosen “secretly” without following any transparent procedure and contrary to established principles.
Public money“This crony capitalism has been taken to another height of plunder of public money by Gujarat government and GSPC investing ₹1,734.60 crore from public exchequer on behalf of GeoGlobal Resources without recovering a single penny,” he said quoting the CAG report.
He added that either a JPC or a court-monitored probe will expose the corruption in the matter.