Licence To Loot: COAL SCAM

By: Aishwarya Yadav

Even as Prime Minister Manmohan  Singh was saving the world at NAM summit in Tehran, a group of senior bureaucrats was busy finalising a draft report recommending cancellation of 53 out of 57 allotments  made by the coal ministry during the period of 2005-2009.

The  draft report revealed that the coal reserves in 53 blocks recommended for cancellation account for Rs.1.85 lakh crore of the total Rs.1.86 lakh crore presumptive loss estimated by CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) of India. The impact of this report will not be felt  immediately, but its meaning was clear to the political class in Delhi: CAG had been correct in its analysis. There was something deeply rotten in the state of coal allotments. The fact was underlined by CBI’s decision to lodge an FIR against six companies for fudging facts submitting forged documents and acquiring coal blocks without an experience of running them.

A FEW WHITE LIES:

PM’S POINT: Coal mines would be auctioned after amending Mines and Minerals Regulations

COUNTERPOINT: The controversial coal blocks were allocated even when it were illegal to do so after September 2010

PM’s POINT: He blamed “cumbersome processes” for delay in adoption of coal auction. 

COUNTERPOINT: But he could have removed all these hurdles himself as Head of Government. After all, all the ministers remain only at his discretion.

PM’s POINT: The policy to switch to auctions from discretionary allotment was the UPA’s initiative.

COUNTERPOINT: But why did the Prime Minister’s Office repeatedly put roadblocks in its implementation.

PM’s POINT: The state governments were to blame for failure to build a consensus on bidding.

COUNTERPOINT: Yet the first step to get the states on board, admitted the Prime Minister, started only in July, 2005. States had given up their reservations by 2006.Nothing was done for three  more years. 31 coal blocks were allotted during this period.

MAN TO BLOW THE WHISTLE:

Hansraj Gangaram Ahir,the  BJP MP from Chandrapur, Maharashtra blew the loudest whistle when he accused the UPA government of awarding captive coal blocks to private players “free of cost”. Certain  of his facts, Ahir petitioned both Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to investigate. His complaint to CVC has led to a CBI probe.

The fact that he had been a member of standing committee  on coal and steel since 2004 helped.”During one of those meetings in 2005,a coal ministery official said Coal India had failed to meet its capacity and the private players would be brought in picture to bridge the gap.It was then that I decided to dig the issue deeper.” 

Two of the Prime Minister’s most argumentative lieutenants have staked their credibility on a zero-loss theory, at the least a scenario in which there was no malafide intent by Government in allocation Their arguments would be shattered-again.for a government tainted by aseries of scandals ,there is hardly any defence left in the raging Coal War.

Adapted from: India Today.