Congress hits back. CBI to investigate coal blocks allocated by NDA

mangaloretoday.com/ ITV

New Delhi, Sept 24: The coal scam, centred on companies faking papers and expertise to land under-priced coal fields, has so far  offered corroborative proof of crony capitalism and circumstantial evidence of corruption. The CBI has so far filed five cases against companies and their directors for charges that include cheating and conspiracy. Two Congress politicians -the Darda brothers from Maharashtra- have been named in those cases.

So far, the CBI had been examining the allocation of coal fields from 2004-2009, the first term of the UPA.  Now, the investigation will go back to 1993 - so the permits given by the BJP-led coalition, the NDA, will also be post-mortemed.

 

That decision was ordered by the country’s top anti-graft body, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).  In May this year, Prakash Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir  of the BJP asked the Vigilance Commission to study the allocations cleared by the UPA. Last week,  the Congress reciprocated.  Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal asked the Commission to study mine allocations since 1993. Today, his request was granted.



"The story starts from 2004 but if somebody wants to go back to 17th century, we have no objection," BJP’s Prakash Javadekar told NDTV.

Last month, the national auditor said in a report that private firms benefitted by upto 1.86 lakh crores because coal fields were not auctioned. The BJP grabbed the finding to demand the Prime Minister’s resignation. For the government, this  has become the latest and largest in a long list of financial scandals that unfurled during its freshman term.

 

 

The letter Mr Jaiswal forwarded last week to the Vigilance Commission was signed by seven Congress MPS that said the NDA used political pressure and influence to benefit companies looking for coal blocks.  "What systems were adopted (block allocation) and whether there was fair play in these selections? This should be done with alacrity since current focus on allocation of coal needs full and complete investigation since inception of new policy since 1993," the letter said.

The UPA has insisted that it implemented the coal policies set by its predecessor, and that when it tried to introduce  a competitive bidding process to increase transparency, several states governed by the BJP objected because they said this would make mining more expensive and adversely impact industrial development in their states.

Already perceived as an administration shackled in graft, the government has refuted the auditor’s conclusions and has set up a committee that is reviewing 58 coal permits where the licensees failed to meet the deadlines laid out in their contracts for developing their coal blocks. So far, the committee’s recommendations gave led to the  cancellation of 12 licenses