Maha orders inquiry into Suzlon's land deals
The Maharashtra Government has ordered a high-level inquiry into wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy’s land deals in the past two to three years at Dhule and Nandurbar, where it is setting up the world’s largest wind energy park.
Maharashtra’s Minister for Non-Conventional Energy, Vinay Kore, told the state Legislative Assembly today that a committe headed by a former additional chief secretary with the revenue department would enquire into the allegations against Suzlon.
The Minister was replying to the issue raised by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari, who claimed Suzlon made profits of over Rs 500 crore from land deals in the Dhule-Nandurbar region by selling land to high-profile individuals under the guise of power generation.
“We are surprised by the state government’s decision of an inquiry, considering the work done by Suzlon in the state of Maharashtra. We will extend our full co-operation for any inquiry,” Suzlon said in a statement.
It said the company practices the highest corporate governance standards, to ensure full compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements for setting up its projects and any allegations on its compliance or practices were unjustified and baseless.
Suzlon’s plans are to set up the largest wind energy park in Dhule with over 1,000 Mw capacity and in the past three years, has operationalised about 650 Mw.
As reported in Business Standard last week, a group of agitators led by Anil Mote, a former MLA, had alleged Suzlon acquired 100,000 acres of land at about Rs 25,000 an acre in the region in the past three years from innocent tribals and farmers in about 40 villages and sold the land to its clients and to celebrities at a price many times higher.
The agitators, who forced Suzlon to stop power generation at about 140 turbines at Dhule on Monday, demanded that those who sold land to Suzlon be paid at least Rs 5 lakh an acre.
“As a rule, land acquisition for any project promoted by the Suzlon group goes through all legal and regulatory clearances and is carried out in a fair manner,” Suzlon had told Business Standard.
Suzlon felt the agitators were trying to blackmail the company by resorting to threats of violence and illegal disruption of the operations of the wind farm. The projects being attacked have been in operation for between two to three years and the fact that issues are being raised now supports the suspicions, Suzlon had said.
Suzlon is the largest wind-power producer in India, with over half of the total installed capacity. It has wind farms located at Sanganeri in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mundargi in Karnataka, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and in Gujarat, besides Dhule, Sangli and Satara in Maharashtra.
BS Reporters
11 June 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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