Even as the Coal Ministry has de-allocated 11 reserves belonging to various private entities, BJP Member of Parliament (MP) Hansraj Ahir in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has alleged that the action taken by the ministry on recommendation of its own inter-ministerial group (IMG) was delayed as the Government failed to conduct the panel's meeting for almost a year.
"There has been delay in the decision and recommendation of the IMG and the decision should have been taken a lot before (sic)… I have been pressing the same demand and the Government and the Coal Ministry did not bother to take note of the demand and call the meeting of the IMG on the said issue. Besides this, the meeting of the IMG could not be conducted from November 2012 i.e. one year and the issue was prolonged," Ahir has said in the letter.
He claimed that the IMG meeting in which the 11 blocks were recommended to be cancelled, finally took place in October this year and this was owing to pressure mounted by the BJP.
"The delay in holding the meeting of the IMG is also suspicious and the Government needs to give a free hand to the IMG to call the meetings and review the allotted coal blocks.
Ahir further alleged that the Chairman of the IMG (which is headed by Additional Secretary in the Coal Ministry) was put under pressure and was not allowed to hold the meetings "which show that there was some vested interest of the Coal Ministry and the Government".
Urging the Coal Minister and Prime Minister to allow the IMG Chairman a "free hand" in conducting the IMG meetings on regular basis, the BJP MP from Chandrapur in Maharashtra said that applying pressure on the IMG is against the Constitution and should be stopped immediately.
The BJP leader also exhorted the Government to give all the cancelled blocks to state-owned entities like Coal India ltd and Neyveli lignite ltd which have been seeking blocks since long.