ADANI PROJECT NEAR BORDER

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday (February 12, 2025) asked the Narendra Modi-led Union government to come clean on the claims made in a news report that it had changed the rules regarding land allocation near international borders to help the Adani group build a renewable energy park in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch at the India-Pakistan border.

Reacting to an investigation by The Guardian, Congress leaders said that the government move jeopardised national security, and asked the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister to “explain why such a drastic step to compromise our national security was taken”.

Neither the government nor the Adani group has responded to the news reports and the comments made by the Opposition party.

The investigation by The Guardian said that the Adani Group is setting up a solar plant and building the world’s largest renewable energy park at Khavda in Kutch, barely a kilometre from the Pakistan border.

Earlier security protocols did not allow any construction in the area, but the Gujarat government wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) before April 2023, seeking permission for infrastructure projects to be built on the land near the border, reported the British publication.

Its report claimed that a “confidential meeting” was convened in Delhi on April 21, 2023 to discuss the matter. At that time, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) was in possession of the land that was leased out by the Gujarat government.