Allegation Not Based On Facts, Odisha Different From Other States: BJD In Adani Bribery Case

Bhubaneswar: A day after indictment of Gautam Adani in the US in a fraud scheme, the BJD on Friday rebuffed allegation that officials of the then Naveen Patnaik-led government in Odisha took bribes from the Adani Group for supply of renewable energy to the state from the central pool.

The US prosecutors alleged that the Adani Group paid USD 265 million in bribes to government officials of Odisha and four other states to secure contracts with state electricity distribution companies between 2021 and 2023. It pertains to a contract secured by Adani Green Energy and another renewable-energy company, Azure Power, to provide 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a central PSU. Later to save the deal, Adani allegedly decided to bribe local officials to persuade them to buy expensive solar power, potentially earning more than $2 billion in profit over 20 years.

The BJD government was in power in Odisha from 2000 till June 2024.

“These allegations against Odisha are baseless and not based on facts. The state has nothing to do with the agreement. Whatever agreement was done that remained confined among Gridco, the distribution company and the SECI, a central PSU. The state government has no role in all these matters though the administration was informed regarding the PSA”, former Energy Minister and BJD MLA Pratab Keshari Deb told PTI.

Also Read: Were Officials In Odisha Bribed By Adani Group For Solar Power Deal?

He further stated that there is a difference between other states and Odisha, where power distribution has been privatised. “Other states are doing the job directly, but Tata Power takes care of the distribution part of the electricity supply here,” he said.

Deb said that the agreement may involve Adani, SECI, Gridco and the distribution company. “All the agreements on power get the approval of the OERC (Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission), an autonomous body. The Gridco is also semi-autonomous. Therefore, the state government has no direct role in the agreements. Neither the Energy minister nor the secretary are involved in all such agreements,” he asserted.

Gridco, however, is yet to respond to these allegations.

Deputy opposition leader and senior BJD leader Prasanna Acharya, however, called for a prompt and impartial investigation into the bribery allegations.

Former president of Odisha Congress Sarat Pattanayak supported party leader Rahul Gandhi’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the matter.

BJD press statement

The allegation

The SECI had allegedly signed PAS with Odisha discom for 500 MW, allegedly after a bribe of ‘hundred of thousands of dollars’, on July 22, 2021.

“According to Adani Green’s internal records, a payment equal to hundreds of thousands of dollars was paid or promised to government officials in the Indian state of Odisha to cause Odisha to enter into a Power Supply Agreement with SECI for the purchase of 500 MW of power,” said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told US District Court, Eastern District of New York.

“Consistent with Adani Green’s internal records, SECI announced its first Power Supply Agreement (PSA) related to the Manufacturing Linked Projects in July 2021, pursuant to which the Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco) agreed to buy 500 MW of power capacity from SECI,” the complaint added.

The state PSU, presently engaged in bulk purchase and bulk sale of power to the four distribution companies inside Odisha, in its annual report for 2022-23, said that two PSAs were signed with SECI for a total of 400 MW of wind capacity and three Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)/PSAs for 410 MW of solar capacity to meet future Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) targets. Additionally, on June 9, 2023, Gridco executed another PSA for purchase of 600 MW of wind power from SECI.