The government today chose to keep mum on allegations from Left parties that funds from the Employees’ Provident Fund and LIC were being diverted for the revival of Dhabol project.Replying to Dipankar Mukherjee (CPI-M), who had raised the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri said ‘‘a number of proposals were being considered by the Empowered Committee of Group of Ministers (EGOM) and it was improper for the government to disclose these now.’’‘‘We are trying to resolve the dispute and the EGOM is just trying to find how viable it would be to revive the project,’ Pachauri said. Foreign investors of the shelved project have gone in for arbitration and are demanding six billion dollars.Mukherjee demanded a white paper on the project. The Centre had signed as a guarantor on the deal for the 2184 MW power project between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Enron. A number of Indian banks and financial institutions too had sunk Rs 3,600 crores into the project. ‘‘Our banks’ losses are NPA (non-productive assets), but we are ready to make up the losses of foreign investors by taking away savings of labourers and workers,’’ Mukherjee said. He alleged that companies such as NTPC and GAIL had been unofficially involved in consultations for the revival of the project.
