With the Supreme Court seeking records of the allocation of nearly 178 coal blocks, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Coal Ministry have virtually thrown up their hands on tracing the records and explaining reasons for non-allocation to various entities, a development that is likely to put the UPA government in the dock.
On July 11, the court ordered the government to produce all records on the allotment of the 178 blocks. Interestingly, between 2004 and May 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held the charge of the Coal Ministry with two Ministers of State — Shibu Soren and Dasari Narayana Rao — working under him for brief periods.
Following the court order, the government had set up an Inter-Ministerial Search Committee to gather information from various departments to locate the records.
The committee comprises officials of the state-run Coal India Limited, the Ministries of Coal, Steel, Power and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, who are burning midnight oil to trace the missing links.
However, highly placed sources in the Coal Ministry said a large number of documents pertaining to the allocation were missing and untraceable. In fact, these documents or records were also not available with the PMO, making the task of the Central Bureau of Investigation difficult to go ahead with its probe in a smooth and fair manner. “Records pertaining to allocations, especially before 2005, are missing. In some cases, the files are scattered and are being brought together. Records of the screening committee and the reasons for allocation or rejection of blocks to companies are also missing in many cases, which is likely to put a question mark over the transparency in the allocation process when the case comes up before the apex court,” a senior official of the Ministry said.
So bad is the situation that in a number of cases the records pertaining to number of applicants are also missing. Before 2004, the companies, after recommendations from the State government, identified coal blocks and approached the Coal Ministry for allocation. The Screening Committee did not give any reason for the allocation to a certain company or why it was rejecting the application of others.
However, the UPA I changed the process in 2004 and set up a Screening Committee under the Coal Secretary to decide on allocation to government companies, private entities and the State governments. In fact, time and again the CBI has complained that it was not receiving full cooperation from the Coal Ministry and still a large number of documents and files were not being provided. CBI officials have contended that this has hampered the smooth investigation into Coalgate.
Giving examples of arbitrary allocations, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, in its report last year, had stated that in the case of Rampia and dip side of Rampia coal block in Orissa, where 108 applications were received by the Coal Ministry, only 2 parties made presentations to the Screening Committee. However, the committee recommended 6 companies for allocation.
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