Rs 20,000 cr sunk by Modi in bogus natural gas reserve, alleges Cong

The Congress on Monday exposed a Rs 20,000-crore scam of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tenure as the Gujarat chief minister in 2005 in the bogus natural gas reserve unearthed by the state-run Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) in the Krishna Godavari Basin.

No gas was found and the GSPC that could not return the bank loans totalling Rs 20,000 crore still owes Rs 12,000 crore to 15 banks even after the Prime Minister forced ONGC in August last year to buy the gas blocks from the state public sector firm to reduce its dues to Rs 12,000 crore, Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh told a Press conference.

“The gas reserve was named after the BJP’s Deendayal Upadhyay and Modi has no qualms in defaming the name of the great leader by letting the project launched in his name make the public sector GSPC go bankrupt,” Jairam said, referring to two reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) submitted in the Gujarat Assembly.

He wondered whether the State Bank of India (SBI), which is the lead bank among various banks giving loans to the company, will declare the GSPC as bankrupt on Monday under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular of February 12, 2018 to declare any company in default of more than Rs 2,000 crore as bankrupt 180 days after March 1. He pointed out that 180 days are completed on August 27 and the SBI should declare the GSPC as bankrupt.