Chennai: Charging the Centre with neglecting
the interest of states like Tamil Nadu in the allocation of
natural gas from Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin, Chief Minister M
Karunanidhi on Thursday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s
"early intervention" for an equitable distribution process.
In a letter to Singh, Karunanidhi said the Empowered Group
of Ministers formed by the Centre for gas allocation polices
had allotted the entire current production from the offshore
fields of Reliance in the KG Basin to Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat
and for projects along the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur pipeline.
"Not a single cubic metre of gas has been allocated to
Tamil Nadu, which has a huge demand for this fuel. Thus the
interest of states like Tamil Nadu has been totally
neglected," the DMK chief, whose party is a constituent of
the UPA Ministry at the Centre, said.
He said KG Basin gas was a national wealth and therefore
it has to be distributed in an equitable way.
Two major fertiliser plants in the state -- MFL and SPIC
-- were "struggling for survival" as they were running on
naphtha, Karunanidhi said, adding SPIC had stopped production
due to rising prices of naphtha "which has had an adverse
impact on availability of urea in Tamil Nadu.
"Unless gas is made available, these two plants may face
closure resulting in huge deficiency of vital farm inputs in
the state," he said.
"Hence, I request that natural gas from KG basin should
be allotted to meet the immediate needs of MFL and SPIC and
the power plants coming up in Tamil Nadu. I await your early
intervention and positive response," he said.
PTI
