Coalgate: PM dares BJP, damns CAG
28 Aug 2012 7:45 AM IST
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government switched to an aggressive mode on Monday, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his statement in the House as well as outside while addressing the media. Attacking the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) report on coal block allocation, Singh termed it's findings to be 'misleading', 'flawed' and 'clearly disputable'.
In a detailed statement which rejected the claims made by the CAG, Singh asserted,'I wish to say that any allegations of impropriety are without basis and unsupported by facts. I seek the indulgence of the House to make a statement on issues regarding coal block allocations. I want to assure honourable members that as the then minister in charge, I take full responsibility for the decisions of the ministry.'
Slamming the Opposition for disrupting the House over the alleged coal scam, he blamed the BJP solely for the deadlock in Parliament. 'I wish to assure the country that we have a strong and credible case,' said Singh.
He went on to say, 'My silence is better than a thousand words. This is one occasion where I wished to speak to Parliament and the public. I am sorry that House was not allowed to function. The BJP did not allow the House to function.'
Expressing his displeasure, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said, 'I feel extremely sad that the Prime Minister is not allowed a few minutes to put his views before the Opposition.' Defending the PM, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said, 'Now that the Prime Minister has made a statement before Parliament, I don’t think there is any reason for doubt or complaint any more over CAG report. The Opposition should allow a Parliamentary debate on the matter otherwise people will wonder why they have sent us to Parliament.'
Soon after the PM's statement was issued, the principal opposition party attacked him, as senior leaders of the BJP addressed a press conference. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, 'Congress ko iss ke karan mota maal mila hai.' Countering this , Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, 'The BJP has accused us of making money through auctions, this ‘mota maal’ is part of their culture and not ours.' In a vociferous attack levied on Opposition, finance minister P Chidambaram again addressed a media briefing flanked by telecom minister Kapil Sibal and information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni at Shastri Bhawan in the evening. Chidambaram said that PM had made 'a long and detailed statement which deserves to be debated.' He urged the Opposition also not to make 'sweeping statements' like 'mota maal' against the government.
Slamming the BJP he asserted that, 'the place to debate is Parliament and once again I ask our friends in the Opposition to come to Parliament and debate as long as your want. It is unfortunate that leaders of Opposition refuse to join debate in Parliament and place to do this debate is in Parliament.'
BJP PUMPS UP THE VOLUME
Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament said the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on coal block allocation was disputable, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the government first tried to subvert a constitutional authority and then when it failed to do so attacked the authority.
The BJP demanded that the 142 coal blocks that have been allocated since 2006, should not be cancelled and instead they should be auctioned. 'The Prime Minister's address has not weakened our case, but has made it stronger, our charge is that the competitive bidding policy of 2004 was not implemented for the past eight years,' said leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj.
The BJP alleged that the revenue that was generated from these coal blocks did not go to the government instead it went to the Congress party. 'The allocation of coal blocks was done in a hurry as the Congress party wanted to fill its coffers, unko mota maal mila tha,' said Swaraj.
'If an impartial probe is conducted, I can say with full responsibility as Leader of Opposition that Congress will be in the dock along with the government,' added Swaraj.
Reiterating its demanded for the prime minister's resignation, the BJP alleged that if the government wanted competitive bidding it could have brought an ordinance, and said that between 1994-2006 70 coal blocks were allotted whereas from 2006, 142 coal block have been allotted.
'We are not clear as to how some one was allotted a coal block and what were the basis of allotting these blocks,' said leader of opposition, Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. The party was heavily critical of the prime minister and said that his couplet that silence is better than thousand words, actually means that the prime minister did not have the answers to the tough questions that he had to face.
WE NEVER CLAIMED ‘ZERO LOSS’: CHIDAMBARAM
That there was no question of gain or loss in coal block allocation as the coal has not been mined, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the government never used the term ‘zero loss’.
‘None of us used the phrase zero loss. Nevertheless, a section of the press has incorrectly reported that government claimed that there was zero loss in the allocation of coal blocks,’ Chidambaram said in a written statement.
‘In fact, what I said was: If coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss. The loss can arise only if one tonne of coal is taken out of mother earth and sold at some unacceptable price or value,’ he said.
In a joint press conference with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Law and Justice Minister Salman Kurshid, the finance minister had said on Friday that the notion of presumptive loss by the official auditor in the coal block allocation was flawed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said in its report that the lack of transparency in the allocation of coal blocks to private players had resulted in the loss of a whopping Rs.1.85 lakh crore ($37 billion) to the exchequer.
‘I said question of loss or gain arises only in respect of coal actually mined from any of the 57 blocks. If the coal is not being mined, there is no question of a gain or a loss. That is what I said. So please quote me accurately,’ the finance minister said. agencies
AUDITOR’S WORDS FORCE GOVT TO START CANCELLING ‘UNDEVELOPED’ LICENSES
Rejecting charges of wrongdoing in coal block allocations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the government has already initiated the process of cancelling mines to companies which failed to develop them and action would be taken against ‘wrongdoers’ if any.
‘We have initiated action to cancel the allocations of allottees who did not take adequate follow-up action to commence production,’ Singh said in a statement in both Houses of Parliament amid uproar created by the BJP.
Singh’s rebuttal came in the wake of Government auditor CAG computing that private firms gained a whopping Rs 1.86 lakh crore undue benefit from allocation of 57 coal blocks without competitive bidding between 2005 and 2009.
The Prime Minister said the parties who were allotted mines could not start production which could be ‘partly due to cumbersome processes involved in getting statutory clearances....’
The issue of delays in production, he said, was being addressed separately.
Contending that CAG’s observations were ‘clearly disputable’, he stressed that the CBI was also ‘separately investigating’ the allegation of malpractices on the basis of which due action will be taken against wrongdoers, if any.
The government had earlier said that of the 57 blocks allocated, 20 fall in no go areas and only one was operational out of the remaining 37.
The CAG, in its report tabled in Parliament on August 17, had said that blocks were allocated to private firms on nomination basis instead of competitive bidding, which amounted to Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to national exchequer.
It had named 25 companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power which had got the blocks in various states.
Rejecting CAG’s contention that huge benefits were accrued to private parties, the Prime Minister said a part of gains would get appropriated by government taxation and the new mines bill which provides for 26 per cent of the profit by coal miners for development of local areas. agencies
TDP ECHOES LEFT, DEMANDS CANCELLATION OF COAL BLOCKS
TDP on Monday demanded cancellation of allocation of all the 142 coal blocks and a thorough enquiry into the matter and attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remarks against CAG.
They also termed Singh's statement on the issue as ‘extremely defensive’ and contained ‘several distortions’. At a joint press conference, leaders of CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc and TDP accused the Congress and BJP of ‘match-fixing and disrupting Parliament proceedings saying that a discussion on the issue would ‘expose’ them both.
TDP's Nama Nageshwara Rao sought cancellation of all allotments and criticised the Prime Minister for attacking CAG. Forward Bloc leader Barun Mukherjee also sought a thorough probe into the entire coal block allocation issue and cancellation of all allotments. CPI National Secretary D Raja said an enquiry into the coal block allocations should be ordered to find out who is responsible and book them.
NO COAL BLOCK ALLOCATED IN MY TENURE: JAISWAL
India's Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Monday said no coal block was given away during his tenure and only allotment letters were issued to some firms to whom coal mines were allocated in the first term of the UPA government.
‘I have said time and again that except the coal block allocations made in UPA-I, no allocations have been made. If any Member of Parliament is making any such statement, then that MP is misleading the media as well as the nation,’ he said.
In a hurriedly called press conference, Jaiswal also refuted opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)lawmaker Hansraj Ahir reported allegations that he sanctioned coal blocks to three private companies? SKS Ispat and Power, CGSponge Manufacturers Consortium Coalfield and API Ispat and Powertech.
‘Only two coal blocks were there, whose names have been mentioned. They were already approved (in UPA-I), but allocation letter was not issued because general elections were declared. Those allocation letters got issued when UPA-II came in to the power,’ he said.
‘Forget 35 blocks, not even 0.35 coal blocks were allocated in UPA-II. You can come to our office and find it out, there is no basis (of the allegations),’ he said.agencies
CPI-M WANTS PROBE INTO FAULTY ALLOCATIONS
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday asked the government to cancel all the coal block allocations found faulty by the official auditor and said they may be auctioned.
The Left parties also demanded a judicial probe into the issue. ‘We want a judicial probe,’ said CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury refuted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim that states like West Bengal had wanted the coal blocks to be allotted and not auctioned.
All the allocations made to private players since the Congress took power in 2004 should be cancelled, the Marxist leader told the media here. ‘An auction may be done,’ he added.
He said none of the reasons advanced by the prime minister Monday explained why no transparent and competitive bidding process was introduced in the coal sector from June 2004 till August this year.
He said the West Bengal government, which was ruled by the Left until last year, had never opposed auction of coal blocks but only insisted that the state's interests should not be bartered away. ‘We were never opposed to bidding but said the state's interest should not be bartered away...coal for public utilities and for private parties should be separated,’ Yechury said.
Yechury disputed the government claim that no economic loss had taken place because of the coal blocks allocation to the private players.
He said a similar argument was taken by the government when the second generation spectrum saga erupted. Subsequently, however, the government had to axe all licenses and go for fresh bidding.
Dasgupta termed the prime minister's statement as ‘lame duck’ and ‘unworthy’ and said he should not attack constitutional entities like the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
But the CPI leader clarified that he did not want Manmohan Singh to go, as this would mean the government would go and there would be mid-term polls.
He also denounced the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for stalling the parliament over its demand for the prime minister's resignation, and said most parties wanted the parliament to function so the coal blocks issue could be debated.
‘We denounce the way the parliament is being held up by the BJP... this sends a wrong signal to the people as majority parties want the parliament to function,’ he said. ‘We want a discussion so we can pin down responsibility of the government over coal blocks allocation,’ said Dasgupta.
The Left leaders also charged that both the Congress and the BJP were working in tandem so people's issues like economic condition and price rise could be taken up in parliament.
Addressing the reporters along with the Left leaders, Telugu Desam Party MP Nama Nageshwara Rao said the bidding for coal blocks was not done and that the issue should be debated.
In a detailed statement which rejected the claims made by the CAG, Singh asserted,'I wish to say that any allegations of impropriety are without basis and unsupported by facts. I seek the indulgence of the House to make a statement on issues regarding coal block allocations. I want to assure honourable members that as the then minister in charge, I take full responsibility for the decisions of the ministry.'
Slamming the Opposition for disrupting the House over the alleged coal scam, he blamed the BJP solely for the deadlock in Parliament. 'I wish to assure the country that we have a strong and credible case,' said Singh.
He went on to say, 'My silence is better than a thousand words. This is one occasion where I wished to speak to Parliament and the public. I am sorry that House was not allowed to function. The BJP did not allow the House to function.'
Expressing his displeasure, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said, 'I feel extremely sad that the Prime Minister is not allowed a few minutes to put his views before the Opposition.' Defending the PM, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said, 'Now that the Prime Minister has made a statement before Parliament, I don’t think there is any reason for doubt or complaint any more over CAG report. The Opposition should allow a Parliamentary debate on the matter otherwise people will wonder why they have sent us to Parliament.'
Soon after the PM's statement was issued, the principal opposition party attacked him, as senior leaders of the BJP addressed a press conference. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, 'Congress ko iss ke karan mota maal mila hai.' Countering this , Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, 'The BJP has accused us of making money through auctions, this ‘mota maal’ is part of their culture and not ours.' In a vociferous attack levied on Opposition, finance minister P Chidambaram again addressed a media briefing flanked by telecom minister Kapil Sibal and information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni at Shastri Bhawan in the evening. Chidambaram said that PM had made 'a long and detailed statement which deserves to be debated.' He urged the Opposition also not to make 'sweeping statements' like 'mota maal' against the government.
Slamming the BJP he asserted that, 'the place to debate is Parliament and once again I ask our friends in the Opposition to come to Parliament and debate as long as your want. It is unfortunate that leaders of Opposition refuse to join debate in Parliament and place to do this debate is in Parliament.'
BJP PUMPS UP THE VOLUME
Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament said the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on coal block allocation was disputable, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the government first tried to subvert a constitutional authority and then when it failed to do so attacked the authority.
The BJP demanded that the 142 coal blocks that have been allocated since 2006, should not be cancelled and instead they should be auctioned. 'The Prime Minister's address has not weakened our case, but has made it stronger, our charge is that the competitive bidding policy of 2004 was not implemented for the past eight years,' said leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj.
The BJP alleged that the revenue that was generated from these coal blocks did not go to the government instead it went to the Congress party. 'The allocation of coal blocks was done in a hurry as the Congress party wanted to fill its coffers, unko mota maal mila tha,' said Swaraj.
'If an impartial probe is conducted, I can say with full responsibility as Leader of Opposition that Congress will be in the dock along with the government,' added Swaraj.
Reiterating its demanded for the prime minister's resignation, the BJP alleged that if the government wanted competitive bidding it could have brought an ordinance, and said that between 1994-2006 70 coal blocks were allotted whereas from 2006, 142 coal block have been allotted.
'We are not clear as to how some one was allotted a coal block and what were the basis of allotting these blocks,' said leader of opposition, Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. The party was heavily critical of the prime minister and said that his couplet that silence is better than thousand words, actually means that the prime minister did not have the answers to the tough questions that he had to face.
WE NEVER CLAIMED ‘ZERO LOSS’: CHIDAMBARAM
That there was no question of gain or loss in coal block allocation as the coal has not been mined, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the government never used the term ‘zero loss’.
‘None of us used the phrase zero loss. Nevertheless, a section of the press has incorrectly reported that government claimed that there was zero loss in the allocation of coal blocks,’ Chidambaram said in a written statement.
‘In fact, what I said was: If coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss. The loss can arise only if one tonne of coal is taken out of mother earth and sold at some unacceptable price or value,’ he said.
In a joint press conference with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Law and Justice Minister Salman Kurshid, the finance minister had said on Friday that the notion of presumptive loss by the official auditor in the coal block allocation was flawed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said in its report that the lack of transparency in the allocation of coal blocks to private players had resulted in the loss of a whopping Rs.1.85 lakh crore ($37 billion) to the exchequer.
‘I said question of loss or gain arises only in respect of coal actually mined from any of the 57 blocks. If the coal is not being mined, there is no question of a gain or a loss. That is what I said. So please quote me accurately,’ the finance minister said. agencies
AUDITOR’S WORDS FORCE GOVT TO START CANCELLING ‘UNDEVELOPED’ LICENSES
Rejecting charges of wrongdoing in coal block allocations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the government has already initiated the process of cancelling mines to companies which failed to develop them and action would be taken against ‘wrongdoers’ if any.
‘We have initiated action to cancel the allocations of allottees who did not take adequate follow-up action to commence production,’ Singh said in a statement in both Houses of Parliament amid uproar created by the BJP.
Singh’s rebuttal came in the wake of Government auditor CAG computing that private firms gained a whopping Rs 1.86 lakh crore undue benefit from allocation of 57 coal blocks without competitive bidding between 2005 and 2009.
The Prime Minister said the parties who were allotted mines could not start production which could be ‘partly due to cumbersome processes involved in getting statutory clearances....’
The issue of delays in production, he said, was being addressed separately.
Contending that CAG’s observations were ‘clearly disputable’, he stressed that the CBI was also ‘separately investigating’ the allegation of malpractices on the basis of which due action will be taken against wrongdoers, if any.
The government had earlier said that of the 57 blocks allocated, 20 fall in no go areas and only one was operational out of the remaining 37.
The CAG, in its report tabled in Parliament on August 17, had said that blocks were allocated to private firms on nomination basis instead of competitive bidding, which amounted to Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to national exchequer.
It had named 25 companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power which had got the blocks in various states.
Rejecting CAG’s contention that huge benefits were accrued to private parties, the Prime Minister said a part of gains would get appropriated by government taxation and the new mines bill which provides for 26 per cent of the profit by coal miners for development of local areas. agencies
TDP ECHOES LEFT, DEMANDS CANCELLATION OF COAL BLOCKS
TDP on Monday demanded cancellation of allocation of all the 142 coal blocks and a thorough enquiry into the matter and attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remarks against CAG.
They also termed Singh's statement on the issue as ‘extremely defensive’ and contained ‘several distortions’. At a joint press conference, leaders of CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc and TDP accused the Congress and BJP of ‘match-fixing and disrupting Parliament proceedings saying that a discussion on the issue would ‘expose’ them both.
TDP's Nama Nageshwara Rao sought cancellation of all allotments and criticised the Prime Minister for attacking CAG. Forward Bloc leader Barun Mukherjee also sought a thorough probe into the entire coal block allocation issue and cancellation of all allotments. CPI National Secretary D Raja said an enquiry into the coal block allocations should be ordered to find out who is responsible and book them.
NO COAL BLOCK ALLOCATED IN MY TENURE: JAISWAL
India's Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Monday said no coal block was given away during his tenure and only allotment letters were issued to some firms to whom coal mines were allocated in the first term of the UPA government.
‘I have said time and again that except the coal block allocations made in UPA-I, no allocations have been made. If any Member of Parliament is making any such statement, then that MP is misleading the media as well as the nation,’ he said.
In a hurriedly called press conference, Jaiswal also refuted opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)lawmaker Hansraj Ahir reported allegations that he sanctioned coal blocks to three private companies? SKS Ispat and Power, CGSponge Manufacturers Consortium Coalfield and API Ispat and Powertech.
‘Only two coal blocks were there, whose names have been mentioned. They were already approved (in UPA-I), but allocation letter was not issued because general elections were declared. Those allocation letters got issued when UPA-II came in to the power,’ he said.
‘Forget 35 blocks, not even 0.35 coal blocks were allocated in UPA-II. You can come to our office and find it out, there is no basis (of the allegations),’ he said.agencies
CPI-M WANTS PROBE INTO FAULTY ALLOCATIONS
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday asked the government to cancel all the coal block allocations found faulty by the official auditor and said they may be auctioned.
The Left parties also demanded a judicial probe into the issue. ‘We want a judicial probe,’ said CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury refuted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim that states like West Bengal had wanted the coal blocks to be allotted and not auctioned.
All the allocations made to private players since the Congress took power in 2004 should be cancelled, the Marxist leader told the media here. ‘An auction may be done,’ he added.
He said none of the reasons advanced by the prime minister Monday explained why no transparent and competitive bidding process was introduced in the coal sector from June 2004 till August this year.
He said the West Bengal government, which was ruled by the Left until last year, had never opposed auction of coal blocks but only insisted that the state's interests should not be bartered away. ‘We were never opposed to bidding but said the state's interest should not be bartered away...coal for public utilities and for private parties should be separated,’ Yechury said.
Yechury disputed the government claim that no economic loss had taken place because of the coal blocks allocation to the private players.
He said a similar argument was taken by the government when the second generation spectrum saga erupted. Subsequently, however, the government had to axe all licenses and go for fresh bidding.
Dasgupta termed the prime minister's statement as ‘lame duck’ and ‘unworthy’ and said he should not attack constitutional entities like the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
But the CPI leader clarified that he did not want Manmohan Singh to go, as this would mean the government would go and there would be mid-term polls.
He also denounced the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for stalling the parliament over its demand for the prime minister's resignation, and said most parties wanted the parliament to function so the coal blocks issue could be debated.
‘We denounce the way the parliament is being held up by the BJP... this sends a wrong signal to the people as majority parties want the parliament to function,’ he said. ‘We want a discussion so we can pin down responsibility of the government over coal blocks allocation,’ said Dasgupta.
The Left leaders also charged that both the Congress and the BJP were working in tandem so people's issues like economic condition and price rise could be taken up in parliament.
Addressing the reporters along with the Left leaders, Telugu Desam Party MP Nama Nageshwara Rao said the bidding for coal blocks was not done and that the issue should be debated.
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