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March 12, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report March 12, 2001 |
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Cong questions govt's petition on BalcoTara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi The Congress on Monday questioned the maintainability of the government petition on Balco with senior party leader and noted lawyer Kapil Sibal asserting that it had told the Supreme Court that law and order was a state subject which was the responsibility of the Chhattisgarh state government. The Union government had recently obtained a stay from the court which prevents the state government from stopping the aluminium plant workers from either entering or exiting from the plant. "The Congress has serious apprehensions on the maintainability of the government petition. What is the substantial question of law that the central government has raised," Sibal told reporters at the party's press conference in Parliament. He said that it was unfortunate that the Union government had projected the impression that the Chhattisgarh Congress government of Chief Minister Ajit Jogi was not fulfilling its constitutional obligations (by interfering in the functioning of the Balco plant). "We (the Congress state government) have performed our constitutional duties, are performing them and we will perform them in the future," Sibal, who is a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, contended. He also underscored that he had told the apex court that "there will be free egress and ingress into the Balco plant", contrary to what the Union government had been saying. According to Sibal, he had also assured the apex court that the state government will ensure the supply of electricity and water to the plant. However, the state government would not allow a law and order situation to be created by 'vested interests', he emphasised. Consequently, he pointed out, the Supreme Court had vacated all the interim directions pertaining to Balco in Chhattisgarh, except the one relating toe of tribal land for the plant. He said that the apex court would be passing the final order on April 9. Sibal also pointed out that the central government had written to the Chhattisgarh government on 'a holiday' and had projected the erroneous impression that it (the state government) was not responding to its queries regarding the plant. Chief Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy pointed out that Union Divestment Minister Arun Shourie had wrongly stated that the Chhattisgarh government had been always consulted regarding the divestment of Balco. "If this was so, our party would not have offered to buy the Balco plant for the sum of Rs 5.53 billion," Reddy asserted, adding, "what Shourie said in the Rajya Sabha is not true". ALSO READ:
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