US court indictment of Gautam Adani alleging huge bribes to Indian leaders, of which a major share to the then AP Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has been raising a new controversy on the way the previous government reached into Power Purchase agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
Soon after this issue exposed, the then energy minister Balineni Srinivas Reddy, who is now in Jana Sena came out and said that he refuse to sign on the file due to suspicions, as it was brought to his notice in the mid-night and it was approved by the state cabinet without his consent.
He tried to send signals that the entire agreement was reached by Jaganmohan Reddy directly with Adani group. However, his denial of signing on the file was disputed by former YCP MLA Chevitireddy Bhaskar Reddy. He claimed that not once but twice Balineni signed on the file.
He further asserted that the SECI agreements were discussed in the cabinet only after Balineni signed on the file. “Have you forgotten that when you were the minister, you signed the letter from SECI and the agreements twice?” he asked.
Moreover, he alleged that expecting an MLC seat from Jana Sena, Balineni was trying to criticize Jaganmohan Reddy so as to please both Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan. He also reminded that when Chandrababu was the CM, the unit price of electricity was agreed upon at Rs 4.50, but after Jagan became the CM, the unit price was agreed upon at Rs 2.48.
Strongly responding towards Chevitireddy allegations, Balineni tried to defend himself that he signed only to forward the file to the cabinet for a decision, without his consent. He clarified that he was not present when the tripartite agreement was reached between SECI, Adani Group and AP Discoms. He said he did not sign this agreement.
But the political circles wandered towards Balineni’s arguments. Forwarding a file to the state cabinet, without registering his objections or adverse comments indicates the minister’s approval. Normally actual agreements with corporates will be reached by concerned state government agencies, in which no minister or even a chief minister need not sign. Even in the cabinet meeting, Balineni is not claiming or expressing his reservations over the agreement.
Anyhow, Jaganmohan Reddy was seen in hurry in completing this process with the fact that all the necessary permissions for this project were completed in just 18 hours. On February 15, 2020, the then government issued separate orders to set up 10 gigawatts of solar projects in the state and provide free electricity to farmers for 30 years.
It was initially decided to set up this mega solar power project under the auspices of the state government. However, on September 12, 2021, Gautam Adani came to Tadepalli secretly and met with the then Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy. This put a brake on the mega solar power project to be set up under the auspices of the state government.
With the arrival of Adani, the government decided to buy from SEKI. Within three days of Adani meeting YS Jagan, i.e. on September 15, the state government received proposals from SEKI and the then government completed this process in a hurry to get all the permissions approved by the state cabinet in 18 hours.