The Hindu : National : Anti-Enron activist dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 16, 2004

National

National

Anti-Enron activist dead

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JUNE 15. Financial analyst and a campaigner against the Dabhol power project in Maharashtra and the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat, Pradyumna Kaul, 50, died in Delhi yesterday.

A close associate of Medha Patkar and others of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Kaul was a meticulous researcher and documenter. For years, he tracked the Dabhol power project in which the now defunct Enron Corporation was a principal player. Kaul questioned the financial arrangement between the Maharashtra Government and the multinational consortium headed by Enron and exposed the absence of transparency in the negotiations. He was an invaluable source not just to those campaigning against the Enron-backed power project but also to dozens of journalists writing on these issues.

A graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, Kaul analysed the economics of corporations such as the Dabhol Power Corporation(DPC). He was a national committee member of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad and active with the Enron Virodhi Manch and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Most recently, he appeared before the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Committee and also the Justice S.P. Kurudkar Commission, which was looking into the DPC deal. Kaul wrote extensively on power sector reforms. He died after a holiday in Badrinath. The cremation took place on Tuesday.

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