Telangana Govt writes to Adani to put Rs.100 cr donation to Young India Skill University on hold

The Telangana govt has written to the Adani Foundation seeking to stop the transfer of a donation of Rs.100 crore that the group had committed to the Young India Skills University

Hyderabad: Soon after Rahul Gandhi made it clear that the Congress wanted investigation into all deals by the Adani Group, the party’s government in Telangana has written to the Adani Foundation seeking to stop the transfer of a donation of Rs.100 crore that the group had committed to the Young India Skills University here. However, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy denied any sort of pressure to cancel deals with Adani, and claimed that his government only wanted to avoid controversies.The letter, written by Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan to Adani Foundation chairperson Priti Adani, said the Chief Minister had given instructions not to seek transfer of funds “in view of the present circumstances and arising controversies”. However, it was not made clear whether it was a complete rejection of the donation, or a temporary postponement of the fund transfer.

The Chief Minister, addressing a press conference here on Monday, claimed he was under no pressure to reject the donation and that he would not heed to ‘any sort of pressure’. He instead tried to blame opposition parties, accusing them of stirring a controversy over the Adani Group’s donation. The donation was to be accepted in the better interest of the State, especially to provide quality skills to the youth at the university, he claimed, adding that the donation however, was not being accepted since his government did not want to get into any controversy.

---

Interestingly, while Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has demanded a thorough investigation into the alleged irregularities of the Adani Group, Revanth Reddy said the deals signed by the Telangana government “could not be cancelled unilaterally”. The same was informed to Rahul Gandhi as well, he said, adding that the Congress government was not against investments by Adani, Ambani or Tata. Rahul Gandhi was against the out of the way allotment of the Mumbai airport to the Adani Group by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Every company can file bids and bag contracts, which were being offered legally, he said.

“There is a provision for companies to approach courts, if the contracts are cancelled unilaterally. We also have to consider legal opinions,” he reasoned. However, on Megha Engineering being awarded contracts even after the Sunkishala retaining wall collapse incident, he justified the same saying that in a democracy, there was a procedure laid down for everything. “The government cannot act on some person’s accusations. We have to act as per rules,” he claimed.

Countering the BRS demand to scrap agreements signed with the Adani Group, the Chief Minister said the BRS leaders too would have to be prosecuted for signing agreements with the Adani Group in the past. Interestingly, of the 10 agreements that were signed by Telangana government, five were signed during the BRS tenure over 10 years, while the Congress in less than one year had signed five. Two proposals were rejected by the government. Even among the five, one project cited as Adani’s presence was the Microsoft Data Centre at Ellikatta, with no explanation how it was connected to Adani. Another was three national highway projects, for which contracts are given by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Another one was a 750KV transmission line connecting Vadodara in Gujarat, passing through Warangal in Telangana, and Kurnool and Chilkaluripet in Andhra Pradesh, again, not one decided by the Telangana State government.

Defending his frequent tours to New Delhi, the Chief Minister said he was visiting to the national capital to get projects approved and funds that there long due to the State.

“Even today I am flying to New Delhi to attend Speaker Om Birla daughter’s marriage. Tomorrow after a meeting with Congress MPs from the State, we will seek any union Ministers appointments and hold a meeting,” he said.