Participating in the general debate on the state Budget 2009-10, in the Assembly, Gohil said that several private firms were willing to sell power to the state-owned Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) at rates ranging between Rs 2.22 and Rs 2.29 per unit.

The government, however, chose to purchase electricity from Adani Power Ltd at Rs 5.31 per unit. Gohil told the House that the government had purchased power worth Rs 322 crore at higher rates in just 10 months (between October 2006 and August 2007).

“Since the government has entered into an agreement with Adani to purchase power up to 590 MW per year for the next 25 years, the state exchequer will suffer a loss of a whopping Rs 7,150 crore,” he said, quoting the recent court ruling.

Gohil said what was more shocking was that the government had purchased electricity from Adani Power Ltd at much higher rates, even after the state-owned Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) had offered to supply 1,000 to 1,250 MW of power at Rs 2.25 per unit.

“The then GMDC Chairman and Managing Director C J Jose had made this offer in a letter written to Balwant Singh, former Principal Secretary (Energy) on December 21, 2006. Instead of considering GMDC’s offer, Jose was transferred,” the Congress leader said.

Gohil also alleged that the financial indiscipline and rampant corruption under the present dispensation was mainly responsible for the increasing public debt in Gujarat.

“When the BJP came to power in the state (first in 1995), the government’s debt was just Rs 800 crore. The debt has now reached Rs 1 lakh crore and a huge chunk of the Budget goes into paying interest on this debt every year,” he said.