Adani controversy hots up as Gotabaya denies influence and CEB chairman withdraws COPE testimony

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By Editor_1
Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Gautam Adani, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - PTI
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COLOMBO –President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has denied undue influence over a renewable power plant as a controversy over a project proposed by India’s Adani group, allegedly at a high price, intensified.

The president’s denial came after Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), M. M. C. Ferdinando,  told Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that there had been presidential intervention on the matter.

In his testimony to the COPE on Friday (10), Ferdinando said he was summoned by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on November 24, 2021, and told that India’s Prime Minister Modi was pressuring him to handover the project to the Adani Group.

“I said this matter doesn’t concern me. I said this matter doesn’t concern me or the CEB and that this concerns the board of investments… I pointed out this is a government-to-government deal… In the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), the CEB inserted an exit clause, and then allowed the company (Adani) to do a feasibility study at their own expense,” Ferdinando had told the parliamentary watchdog.

However, on Saturday (11), the president’s office issuing a statement said, “President Gotabaya Rajapaksa categorically stated that he had not at any time given authorization to award a wind power project in Mannar to any person or any institution,” adding that the president had vehemently denied the statement made by the Chairman of the CEB at the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises in this regard.

Shortly after the president’s denial, Ferdinando withdrew his testimony to COPE saying he  had become “emotional due to pressures and unreasonable allegations” levelled against him during the testimony.

“Therefore, due to unexpected pressure and emotions, I was compelled without limitation to express the word ‘India agamathi bala kara bawa kiwwa’ (stressed by the Prime Minister of India), which is totally incorrect. Hence I wish to withdraw the relevant statement and record my apology unconditionally,” local media reports quoted Ferdinando as saying.

Indian media meanwhile reported that New Delhi had not issued an official statement on the remarks, though a senior government official had dismissed the CEB chairman’s claims as “baseless”, noting that as per protocol, important discussions at the government-to-government level, and also between heads of states, are “noted and recorded”.

In a related extraordinary development, the government early last week removed the requirement for competitive tendering to supply power, by changing the law using its parliamentary majority.

-ENCL/econmynext.com

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