Questioning the “silence” of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the reverse auction procedure adopted by the NDA Government for coal blocks of the State, Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena has come down heavily on Patnaik and said the method would cause a huge revenue loss to Odisha. “Reverse auction has already been completed in two coal blocks, Mandakini and Utkal-C. According to Union Coal Secretary, the State would get Rs 19,000 crore from auctioning of Mandakini and Rs 9,000 crore from Utkal-C. If forward auction mode is implemented for these two coal blocks, the State can earn Rs 2.5 lakh crore,” said Jena.
Jena said, “Though the Chief Minister initially opposed the process, he is now maintaining silence on the issue. Is it only because of CBI probe fearIJ” “How the BJD backed the Coal Mines (Special Provisions Bill, 2015) in the Rajya SabhaIJ While the rest of the country will be lit up from Odisha’s coal, the State will be deprived of revenue,” said Jena. He stated that the same reverse auction method will be applied for seven more coal blocks in the State.
