The government must order an inquiry into the events around the NTPC-Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) gas supply contract. So far, the view put out by the Anil Ambani camp and its camp-followers in the media is that NTPC has been done in by RIL. As Reliance Director PMS Prasad has pointed out (‘Our gas price is fair, our costs are competitive’, September 7), NTPC was offered a fair deal. An unlimited liability was asking for too much as RIL would have, as Prasad puts it, “bet the entire company for the sake of a single contract”. It offered NTPC a good deal and said the first lot of gas up to the contracted amount would go to NTPC. What more did NTPC want? In rejecting this offer and choosing to go to court where the matter has dragged on for so many years, NTPC has endangered the interests of its shareholders and of the country’s citizens. Someone needs to be held accountable for this lapse.
Satish Jain, Mumbai
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