As Opposition leaders raised the Reliance SEZ issue in the Assembly on Tuesday, State Finance and Industries Minister Abhimanyu said the then state government had entered into a MoU with Reliance Industries in 2005 to set up the Special Economic Zone in the Gurgaon-Jhajjar region.
“A MoU was signed between HSIIDC and Reliance Ventures Limited on December 12, 2005. Based on the decision of the Haryana Cabinet, HSIIDC signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Reliance Ventures Limited on June 19, 2006, for setting up a multi product SEZ over an area of 25,000 acres in Gurgaon-Jhajjar.
“However, it was later decided to shelve the SEZ project and JVA was terminated on August 29, 2014,” Abhimanyu said, while adding that the previous Congress government had promised “lakhs of jobs” and huge investment in the state from the project. To questions raised by some independent and INLD MLAs, Abhimanyu informed the House that “no tender/competitive bidding process was followed in firming up the project, but a MoU was signed between the two parties....” The minister further stated that many decisions regarding the Reliance SEZ project were taken by the Council of Ministers of the previous Congress government and some even outside the knowledge of the State Cabinet. He also said that Reliance Industries had returned nearly 1,384 acres of land in Gurgaon that was acquired for its SEZ.
RHSL had last year returned 1,383.68 acres of land in Gurgaon acquired from HSIIDC for setting up SEZs. Responding to a question raised by an INLD MLA, the Minister said that a penalty of approximately Rs 50 crore could have been slapped by the previous Congress government on the company, but it chose not to do so. RHSL, was a joint venture between Reliance Ventures Ltd (RVL), RIL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, and government of Haryana through HSIIDC. The JV was established for development of SEZs/Model Economic Township (MET) project and other infrastructure facilities in Haryana.
“A MoU was signed between HSIIDC and Reliance Ventures Limited on December 12, 2005. Based on the decision of the Haryana Cabinet, HSIIDC signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Reliance Ventures Limited on June 19, 2006, for setting up a multi product SEZ over an area of 25,000 acres in Gurgaon-Jhajjar.
“However, it was later decided to shelve the SEZ project and JVA was terminated on August 29, 2014,” Abhimanyu said, while adding that the previous Congress government had promised “lakhs of jobs” and huge investment in the state from the project. To questions raised by some independent and INLD MLAs, Abhimanyu informed the House that “no tender/competitive bidding process was followed in firming up the project, but a MoU was signed between the two parties....” The minister further stated that many decisions regarding the Reliance SEZ project were taken by the Council of Ministers of the previous Congress government and some even outside the knowledge of the State Cabinet. He also said that Reliance Industries had returned nearly 1,384 acres of land in Gurgaon that was acquired for its SEZ.
RHSL had last year returned 1,383.68 acres of land in Gurgaon acquired from HSIIDC for setting up SEZs. Responding to a question raised by an INLD MLA, the Minister said that a penalty of approximately Rs 50 crore could have been slapped by the previous Congress government on the company, but it chose not to do so. RHSL, was a joint venture between Reliance Ventures Ltd (RVL), RIL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, and government of Haryana through HSIIDC. The JV was established for development of SEZs/Model Economic Township (MET) project and other infrastructure facilities in Haryana.