The government advised the warring Ambani brothers several times that they should stop fighting, but failed to bring about a reconciliation, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
"We tried to bring a reconciliation, but we failed," said Deora, who is accompanying President Pratibha Patil on her visit to Russia.
Speaking to reporters here, the minister said: "The government had advised several times that they (Mukesh and Anil Ambani) should stop fighting."
Even "the Prime Minister's general approach has been that instead of fighting, they (Ambanis) should patch up as both their groups contribute sizeably to India's economic growth," a PMO official had said last month.
The two Ambani groups command about 10 per cent of collective market capitalisation of the total over 4,000 companies in the country.
"We wanted to put an end to it (gas dispute) so that the work can go on," Deora, whose ministry was the focus of attack of Anil Ambani group's advertisement campaign on gas pricing matter, said when asked about reasons for the government to yesterday amend its petition in Supreme Court on the dispute between RIL and RNRL - the two firms promoted by Mukesh and Anil, respectively.
The government application said that "it is in no way concerned with the private dispute between RIL and RNRL or between the Ambani brothers, but is only concerned with its rights as owner and regulator of natural gas."
The original petition had sought "(the MoU) should be declared null and void."
On the issue of gas allocation, Deora said, "We want a committee rather than the ministry to go into the issue."
Deora had said on Monday that he had sought constitution of an empowered Group of Ministers to decide the allocation of the incremental production from Reliance Industries-operated KG-D6 fields.
The previous EGoM had decided on allocation of first 40 mmscmd of gas from RIL's KG-D6 fields. RIL now has capability to produce close to 60 mmscmd, but is restricting output to 36-37 mmscmd because of lack of government-identified customers.
