Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the State government will soon order a judicial probe by a High Court Judge into the Vizhinjam deal on the basis of the adverse findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
Mr. Vijayan made this announcement while addressing a function in Alappuzha on Sunday. The Chief Minister said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had their perceptions about the Vizhinjam Multi-purpose Deep-sea International Container Terminal.
But the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government, by signing the port development deal, had put the burden on the LDF government. The government was bound by law to go ahead with the project and set aside differences of opinion. But the rather strong criticisms of the CAG had changed the position and the government was now bound to examine the various points raised in his report. “We are determined to examine the deal in detail,” he said.
The CAG, in its report tabled in the House a couple of weeks ago, had said the concession agreement of the Vizhinjam seaport project had several conditions that went against the interests of the State government, but were advantageous to Adani Ports and SEZ Private Limited. It had found irregularities in fixing the concession period at 40 years instead of 30 years as designated for PPP projects, leading to a revenue loss of ₹29,000 crore.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who took the lead in signing the agreement with the Adanis, later maintained that the 40-year period had been agreed to as per the model PPP agreement approved by the Planning Commission. Besides, it had got the Central government’s clearance for viability funding. The Chief Minister had promised on the floor of the Assembly that the government would revisit the agreement in the light of the CAG report since it was a serious matter.
