Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) official has resigned over the controversy that a Sri Lankan energy project has been assigned to the industrialist Gautam Adani after being pressured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Chairman of Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), MMC Ferdinando quit his job three days after the controversy spread out. He said to the parliamentary panel that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has told him that he was being pressured by Prime Minister Modi to give the wind power project to the Adani group.
However, Mr. Rajapaksa has completely denied the claim. An executive of popular media channel NDTV has suggested that the said CEB executive officer had written to the Lankan Finance Ministry to fast-track approvals to the 500 Megawatt renewable energy project in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district along with a citation such as “directed by the (Lankan) Prime Minister.”
The Adani group said, “Our intent in investing in Sri Lanka is to address the needs of a valued neighbor. As a responsible corporate, we see this as a necessary part of the partnership that our two nations have always shared. We are clearly disappointed by the detraction that seems to have come about. The fact is that the issue has already been addressed by and within the Sri Lankan Government.”
Mr. Ferdinando has written a letter addressed to SR Atigala, the Secretary to the Treasury, Lanka Ministry of Finance.
The letter refers to a “direction by the Prime Minister to recognize the Adani Green Energy proposal as a proposal from Indian government to the government of Sri Lanka as both heads of the countries are in agreement to realize this investment in Sri Lanka, to meet the present day FDI crisis.”
The letter stated that the Adani Group won contracts of $500 million to develop wind projects in Mannar and Pooneryn.
However, the government did not respond to the allegations in the letter.
