Former Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi on Friday termed former Coal Secretary PC Parakh as an “upright officer” who was retained in office till retirement because of that. His clean chit to Parakh comes even as the CBI has named him as an accused in a FIR in the case relating to Hindalco. At the same time, he substantiated Parakh’s claims saying the coal mafia within the Government has been in existence for donkey years.
Responding to allegations made by then Coal Minister Shibu Soren who wanted his transfer from the Ministry, Parakh had in 2005 in a letter, which surfaced now, said that coal mafia “is not outside the Government”.
Terming himself as “gullible adivasi”, Soren had said, “I have to reluctantly take a view that it may not be appropriate to continue any further with the present Secretary (Parakh). I, hence, request the Prime Minister to finally consider to substitute the present incumbent with a suitable alternative”.
On the letter written by Parakh, Chaturvedi said there were complaints against him and he was asked to offer his comments. “For that, he offered all these comments (letter). So based on that, we didn’t find any merit in the complaints against Parakh and rejected it...I do recall very well the people wanted to shift Parakh and we saw to it that he remains in the seat till he retires,” Chaturvedi said.
About the presence of coal mafia in the Government as alleged by Parakh and the subsequent action taken in this regard, Chaturvedi said, “In one or two cases, as he said, allegations came and we looked at it and found it was baseless. So we closed the papers and if I do recall that coal mafia...has been in existence in that area since donkey’s years. legally speaking CBI should look at legal aspect. As far as I am concerned, I consider Parakh as a very honest officer. To me it appears that this is a case of bonafide decisions and there is no basis in this debate. But I do feel very strongly that honest bureaucrats should be protected.”
Chaturvedi, now a member of Planning Commission, told reporters, “I consider Parakh a very upright officer.”
In the letter in 2005, Parakh had said, “It (coal mafia) exists within the Ministry of Coal, coal companies, trade unions, State administrations and local political leadership. There are no easy and shortcut solutions to the problem of coal mafia in the current political and administrative milieu of the country.
As the letter made headlines, Parakh told reporters, “Then Coal Minister Shibu Soren has made certain allegations against me. So in response, I had sent that letter to then Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi. When I said coal industry is affected by the mafia, the intention was that a lot needs to done in coal industry to bring transparency. Ministers were opposing these ideas. If you don’t have transparency then you have all these kinds of problems.”