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Rubbishing all the charges levelled against him by Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Tuesday that he was ready to resign if the former could produce any evidence supporting the allegations.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Dasgupta had accused Moily of relieving a senior petroleum ministry official of his charge after the bureaucrat took a tough stance against Reliance Industries (RIL).
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“If there is an iota of evidence against me, I will resign. Even after I am with the ministry for nine months, I have not changed even a director. This is just a redistribution of work,” Moily told reporters on Tuesday.
Giridhar Armane, a joint secretary who is incharge of exploration and looking at pricing issues as well, was stripped of the additional latter charge through an order dated August 8.
The minister told reporters Armane would continue in the same capacity and only some of his responsibilities such as unconventional resources and gas pricing had been shifted to another joint secretary, P K Singh.
“It is learnt that the secretary and joint secretary have put up an analysis to the minister recently, with a recommendation that the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to increase prices be put on hold until a decision is taken on the matter regarding providing shortfall quantity at the old rates,” Dasgupta said in his letter.
The finance ministry had asked the petroleum ministry to examine if it was possible to ensure Reliance Industries delivered its current supply shortfall at the old price, so that it did not get undue benefit from the increased price.
