[Marxistindia] pb statements

[news from the cpi(m)]

January 14, 2009

Press Statement

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statements:

 

Investigate Maytas Cos

 

The Central government has asked the Serious Fraud Investigation Office to investigate the affairs of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. While this needs to be done, it is also necessary to examine the business dealings and finances of Maytas Infra Ltd and Maytas Properties Ltd.

 

The Maytas companies have been given contracts worth over Rs. 30,000 crores by the Andhra Pradesh state government and have accumulated a huge amount of land. One example is the Rs. 12,220 crore Hyderabad Metro Project.  It has now come to light that the Managing Director of DMRC had written to the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission in September 2008, protesting against the PPP model adopted in the case of Hyderabad Metro, where 296 acres of prime land has been made available to the BoT operator for commercial exploitation. Warning of a "big political scandal" the DMRC Managing Director had also warned of a "hidden agenda" of the developer to "extend the Metro network to a large tract of his private land holdings so as to reap a windfall profit of four to five times the land price". The objections raised regarding this contract by Mr. E. Sreedharan, Head of the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. Ltd (DMRC), led to the removal of the  DMRC as a project consultant.

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) wants the Prime Minister to order a high level probe into the various projects sanctioned to the Maytas companies in Andhra Pradesh alongwith the investigation into the affairs of these two companies.  

 

 

Sanction Kochi Metro

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly protests the stalling of the Kochi Metro Rail Project due to the opposition of the Planning Commission.  The government of Kerala had decided to implement the Kochi Metro Project on the lines of the Delhi  Metro project where 30 per cent of the project cost was to be borne by the state and Central government on a 50:50 basis and the balance amount to be raised as debt from lending agencies.   The detailed project report was prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. Ltd (DMRC) and the Union Ministry of Urban Development had approved the project.  

 

It is unfortunate that the Planning Commission has refused to approve the project.  The Planning Commission wants a private party brought into the Metro Project on a  Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) model.  A Planning Commission team led by its Principal Advisor (Infrastructure) which visited Kerala had contested the state government's project plan and recommended the PPP model on the lines of the now controversial Hyderabad Metro project.

 

The Hyderabad Metro Project and the way the Planning Commission pushed it is a prime example of how India's economic policy establishment is promoting private capital even at the cost of public interest.  The Planning Commission has been trying to impose the Hyderabad Metro model on to Kerala, which is a prime example of crony capitalism.  

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands the immediate intervention on the part of the Prime Minister to ensure a speedy approval of the Kochi Metro Rail Project on the basis of the funding pattern suggested by the Government of Kerala.