Keeping in view the several hydro-power projects lying within distances of 10-50 km from the international border, the Government is now planning to bring out a “non-discriminatory” policy to address the “security concerns” related with participation of foreign companies to tap the hydro-potential of Himalayan Ranges bordering China and Pakistan and other sensitive areas. The Task Force on Hydro Power Development headed by the Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will meet on Wednesday to finalise an “interim” policy for the same. Since the current norms for project approval does not impose any restriction by security agencies on projects involving foreign contractors engaged at the site, the task force will consider a compulsory “security vetting” of the projects in sensitive areas by the Ministry of Home Affairs even at the Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage as an “interim arrangement” till a final country policy is put in place. The interim arrangement calls for the Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) to forward the details of foreign bidders to the Home Ministry for “security clearance” at the RFQ stage itself. Considering the time constraints in processing the bids, the Home Ministry will have to respond to these cases “within 21 days”. In case of rejections, if any, the arrangement calls for the Home Ministry to cite “reasons” for rejections of bids otherwise a no clearance within the specified 21 days would be “presumed” as no objection certificate by the MHA. Under the proposed arrangement, the foreign agencies bidding for the project contracts will have to provide the details of the number of foreign nationals that will be working at “various points of time” during the project execution in the sensitive areas. The interim policy plans to limit the number of foreign nationals present at a maximum of 40 at “any given point of time”.
