The Congress leadership has asked Kuldip Bishnoi, the MP son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, to back off from his opposition to the mega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project planned by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in Haryana. The party is even considering a show-cause notice against Bishnoi.

The agreement was to be signed on Monday but was put off. Both RIL and the state government say the deal will be through next week.

The Haryana controversy is over 1,700 acres of land near Gurgaon, part of 25,000 acres meant for the RIL SEZ. Bishnoi has alleged that while the market rate of the land is about Rs 5,000 crore, the state government has offered the land for about Rs 360 crore to the company.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said today that the signing of the Reliance SEZ project was deferred only on request from Mukesh Ambani, who had returned from the US yesterday and wanted some time for signing the MoU.

“There is no political motive behind this delay in signing of the MoU and there was no question of reviewing this prestigious project,” he said, adding that the SEZ would generate employment for 5 lakh persons and revenue of Rs 10,000 crore per year.

Sources also said that Ambani had some queries over certain clauses of the project, by which the land was to revert to the government in case the company abondons the project midway. ‘‘Ambani himself wanted to study the project report before putting his signatures on the agreement,’’ said a top RIL official. There had been no opposition until the government decided to hand over already-acquired 1,700 acres at Garhi Harsaru in Gurgaon as part of the Reliance SEZ at almost the same price at which it was purchased.

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