Munde to meet anti-Enron activists

MUMBAI, June 23: Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde is to meet anti-Enron activists in Guhagar on July 5 for a debate on the 2450 MW proj...

MUMBAI, June 23: Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde is to meet anti-Enron activists in Guhagar on July 5 for a debate on the 2450 MW project.

Munde, who is holding the Power portfolio, will be accompanied by secretaries of the Power and Finance ministries and some of the experts who participated in the renegotiation process after the first phase of the project was cancelled by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in August 1995.

Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had promised activists of the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) on June 8 that he would ask the Deputy Chief Minister to address the project affected people at Guhagar. The debate’ is to be held before locals who are opposed to the project.

Besides Medha Patkar, who is leading the agitation against the project, NAPM would also have its own experts present.

Sources reveal that the name of noted scientist Jayant Narlikar as moderator’ for the debate was turned down by the government.

Munde himself was not too keen to go to Guhagar, having treated the Enron controversy as a closed chapter, the petition in the Supreme Court notwithstanding.

Munde had also perceived Joshi’s promise to the anti-Enron campaigners as a bid to put him in the hot seat though the decision to revive the controversial project was a joint decision of the Sena-BJP government.

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The arrangements for the public debate are being made by the State Government, and the event is likely to be a major media exercise.