As the Adani’s alleged bribe scandal in solar power projects rocked the entire country, the Congress government in Telangana quickly reacted and announced rejection of Rs 100 crore fund pledged by the Adani Group for the construction of Young India Skills University on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Special chief secretary (industrial promotion) Jayesh Ranjan on Monday wrote a letter to Adani Foundation chairperson Priti G Adani, asking her not to transfer funds to the university.
“We are thankful to you for committing Rs 100 crore to Young India Skills University on behalf of your Foundation through a letter on October 18. We have so far not asked any of the donors for physical transfer of funds since the University had not received the IT exemption under section 80G,” Jayesh Ranjan said.
“Though this exemption order has now come recently, he had been instructed by the chief minister not to seek transfer of funds in view of the present circumstances and arising controversies,” the letter said.
Announcing this at a press conference, chief minister A Revanth Reddy said some forces have been accusing the state government of accepting funds from the Adani Group.
He said several companies had come forward to provide funds under the Corpus Fund for the Young India Skills University.
As part of that, Adani group came forward and announced Rs 100 crore for the university.
“Till now, the Telangana government has not taken funds from any company including Adani. In the wake of the ongoing controversies, the government wrote a letter stating that the state government is not ready to accept Rs 100 crore offered by the Adani group,” he said,
He added that the Telangana has nothing to do with the controversies surrounding the Adani group in the neighbouring states and in other countries.
“We have started the Skills University with a good intention and the government does not want to make it controversial. That is why the government decided not to accept funds from Adani,” he said
As per the rule, everyone had been given the opportunity to invest legally.
“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that the company which wins the bids as per the rules will get the opportunity to invest,” he said.
He reminded that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government had also entered into agreements with Adani group.
“The same people are accusing us. We shall not give any undue benefit to any investor in terms of investments,” he asserted.
