NEW DELHI: (TIP): The Congress has questioned the decision of the Narendra Modi government to facilitate loan worth 6,200 crore through State Bank of India for Adani’s mining venture in Australia, demanding disclosure of the MoU of the loan agreement. Threatening to raise the matter in the Parliament session, Congress general secretary, communication, Ajay Maken said: “People are opening accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana, anticipating that the government will deposit the retrieved black money in their accounts, however, the government, it seems, plans to siphon off the money deposited by people in their accounts for funding big corporate projects.” The Congress said many international banks had ruled out funding Adani’s project due to financial uncertainty of the project. The SBI has granted Adanis the loan for a coal mine project in Queensland.

SBI defends

SBI said it has only signed a preliminary MoU and will disburse the money only after proper due diligence

“We clarify that this is a memorandum of understanding. This is not a loan sanction that we have given. It will go through proper due diligence both on the credit side as well as on the viability side,” SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said.