The commission wondered how could the CAG evaluate the merit of a policy decision by the government. Kochi: A judicial commission has lashed out at the Comptroller and Auditor General for casting a shadow over the Vizhinjam International Port agreement signed by the previous United Democratic Front government with the Adani Group.
The CAG had reported that Kerala’s interests were not protected when the Oommen Chandy government signed the deal with the Adani Group. Justice C N Ramachandran Nair termed as idiotic the auditor’s treatment of the project like a public sector undertaking.
The commission wondered how could the CAG evaluate the merit of a policy decision by the government. The commission asked the present government if it thought it was to cancel the deal.
Santosh Mahapatra, an adviser to the Adani Group, said that the Left Democratic Front government was in favour of the project and it had already handed over Rs 290 crore to the company.
Former ports secretary had pointed out that the deal received the go-ahead from Chandy’s predecessor V S Achuthanandan even though the port was found to have no economic benefit to the state.
The commission said that the CAG’s decision to bracket the government-aided project and the PSUs in the same category was not in accordance with basic principles.
The commission objected to the CAG’s report that pinned the blame on Chandy, while it was a collective decision of the cabinet. The government had determined the total expense of the project even before inviting bids from companies, it pointed out.
The commission had asked the government pleader to clarify a clutch of issues including the validity of the CAG report. It also asked the pleader to work on it urgently since the project was moving ahead.
M K Salil, whose public interest litigation led to the judicial scrutiny of the deal, was not present on Monday.
The CAG reported that though the standard concession period was 30 years, extendable by another 20 years, the Vizhinjam agreement had fixed the concession period at 40 years.
The concession period of 40 years could be further extended by another 20 years.
In effect, the Vizhinjam project would not be handed over to the State, even after the termination of the concession period.
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