The government had in 1999 bid out KG-D6 and 23 other blocks through an international open tender under the New Exploration Licensing Policy that was formulated after four years of intense public consultations and using the best practices from the world over, a Petroleum Ministry official said. RIL offered better commercial and technical terms than public sector ONGC-GAIL combine and Cairn Energy to win the KG-D6 block and signed Production Sharing Contract in April 2000 on terms that were similar of the other block winners that included Gazprom of Russia, ONGC and Cairn, the official added. On Wednesday, India Against Corruption had alleged that the United Progressive Alliance and the previous National Democratic Alliance governments had favoured RIL by giving KG-D6 gas exploration contract and concessions at a huge cost to the exchequer. Separately, a source close to RIL said both the PSC as well as the terms of auction were always widely publicised and have been in public domain since 1999.