EAS Sarma, a former union government secretary, has called the allocation of 130 acres of land to the Adani company for the construction of a data analytics centre in Visakhapatnam unacceptable.
Visakhapatnam: The allocation of 130 acres of land to the Adani group for the construction of a Data Analytics Center in the city’s Madhurawada neighbourhood has been deemed objectionable by the former secretary to the union government, EAS Sarma.
Sarma also believes that the government’s decision should be the subject of an investigation by a judicial commission because it has significant implications for the public interest.
He expressed hope that the State government would hold the inquiry to boost its credibility in the eyes of the public, noting that the market prices of lands in Madhurawada have been skyrocketing recently and, even on a conservative basis, the value of the 130 acre land given to the Adani Group would exceed Rs 4000 crore.
Furthermore, he noted that despite having a significant stake in and ultimate ownership of the Krishnapatnam Port, the State government unilaterally permitted the Adani Group to acquire a 100% stake in that port without taking into account the potential negative effects such an acquisition might have on the State. Nearly at the same time, there are rumours that the State government will also turn over to the Adani Group management and maintenance of the government-owned Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station. However, APGENCO, the public sector undertaking, which is rated among the best in the nation, has far more technical experience and expertise than the Adani Group does. the Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Plant’s operation is handled by a private company
According to the State Government’s Land Use Policy, the annual lease rental for land leased to private organisations for a public purpose shall not be less than 10% of the land’s market worth. Since the AP government appears to have given the property to the private company for a total of Rs 130 crore, the lease rate for the Madhurawada site cannot be less than Rs 400 crore per year. This suggests that the State administration has chosen to provide the Adani Group a large unauthorised advantage at the expense of the public coffers. This is quite offensive,” he said.
Dr. Sarma recollected that the State government had recently sold the Adani Group its strategic 10.5% equity share in the Gangavaram Port to the group in a non-transparent manner, in violation of the disinvestment guidelines approved by the Government of India, by failing to adopt an open, transparent bidding procedure. He noted that the allocation of land to the Adani Group is not an isolated instance of the State’s undue munificence to the group. In addition to costing the public exchequer money, the Center’s foolish decision to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant set the path for the organisation to bolster its claim to acquire it for a pittance. It appears that the State government has partnered with the Center in the the latter’s reprehensible decision to privatise the port. It means that the State, in connivance with the Centre, has deliberately opted to act against the interests of the people of the northern sections of AP, he claimed, given that privatisation of the steel factory has significant emotional significance for the people of the northern Andhra region would also involve insulting the former chief minister of the state, after whom your predecessors had named the facility, he said.
