The Coal Ministry has used every trick in the book to hoodwink the CBI in the coalgate probe despite Supreme Court’s monitoring.
While the Coal Ministry has claimed it has made available majority of the files sought by the CBI, the agency is yet to receive these documents.
There are 20 such instances where the claims of the Coal Ministry have been contradicted by the CBI. Probe into eight out of 13 FIRs is hampered due to the missing files.
The latest list of missing files was consolidated by the CBI on September 1 and has been sent to the Coal Ministry through Attorney-General GE Vahanvati for submission within two weeks as directed by the Supreme Court on August 29. The CBI is likely to register an FIR if these files are not submitted by the Coal Ministry to the agency within the stipulated period.
The revelations also put a question mark on the credibility of the statement made by Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal in Parliament on the issue of missing files last month.
The files claimed to have been submitted by the Coal Ministry to CBI but not received by the agency include final minutes of the 26th Screening Committee meeting (deals with the basis for coal block allocation between 2006 and 2009), recommendation letter issued by Congress MP Vijay Darda for allocation of Bander coal block to AMR Iron and Steel and forwarded by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to Coal Ministry, scrutiny report regarding financial strength of applicant companies prepared by Coal India ltd and submitted to the 35th Screening Committee, confirmation regarding prohibition, if any, with regard to sale/transfer of equity shares by companies, draft minutes and changed draft minutes of the 34th Screening Committee meeting.
“The concerned original file of 26th Screening Committee has already been handed over to CBI. Interim reply sent to CBI. The photocopy of the file of 26th Screening Committee meeting has not yet been received. Ministry of Steel and Ministry of Power have been requested to search and provide a copy of the final minutes, if available with them,” the Coal Ministry said in a letter dated August 21.
“Ministry of Coal vide their letter dated August 7, 2013 has informed that the final minutes of the 26th Screening Committee are not traceable in the records of CA-I section of Ministry of Coal and in the records of CMPDIl/CIl. The same is also not available in the original files of the 26th Screening Committee meeting which are in the custody of CBI. Thus, the required document has not been received by the CBI," said the consolidated list of missing files forwarded by Vahanvati to Coal Secretary.
In the case of PMO's directive following Congress MP Darda's recommendation letter, the Coal Ministry's response to CBI said: "The relevant file No 38039/31/2007-CA-I has already been handed over to CBI vide this Ministry's letter No. 13016/22/2012-CA-I (Part) dated 28.1.13. However, the letter of Vijay Darda, MP could not be located in the Ministry of Coal. The Prime Minister's Office is being requested to provide a copy of the same."
CBI's list of missing files says: "The relevant file is available in CBI but the letter requisitioned has not been received from Ministry of Coal."
likewise, on the file relating to the report of the financial experts from CIl, as referred to at Para 9 of the minutes of 35th Screening Committee meetings (MoC letter No 13016//22/2012-CA-I (Part II), Coal Ministry in a letter to CBI in July this year said: "Specific reply of Ministry of Coal has already been given to CBI vide letter No 32022/17/2012-Vig/CA-I."
CBI's list consolidated on September 1 said: "The required document has not been provided by the Ministry of Coal."
Document/file/information still awaited by the CBI include those relating to Tata Sponge Iron ltd, Adhunik Corporation, Rathi Steel, Bhushan Steel, AMR Iron and Steel, Jharkhand Ispat among others. In these cases also the Coal Ministry has claimed that it has submitted its "specific reply" to the CBI but the agency said the required documents have not been provided by
the former.
Other outstanding documents to be received by the CBI include present status of Sasan UMPP (when was it commissioned, when the coal was started to be extracted from all three captive coal blocks, how much incremental coal has been used so far in the Chitrangi Power Projects from the coal blocks allocated to Sasan UMPP), whether such claims of Reliance Power ltd were processed and the related files and how the tariff-based competitive bidding rates for generation of power based on incremental coal was assured by the Coal Ministry in Chitrangi Power Project which was one of the conditions of the EGoM.
Applications, annexure and processing files in respect of Tata Sponge Iron ltd that was allocated Radhikapur East coal block.
After months of dilly dallying, the Coal Ministry, meanwhile, urged the Ministries of Steel and Power to form their own search teams to locate the "missing" files by September 10.
Coal Minister Jaiswal held a review meeting with officials of his own Ministry as well as representatives of Steel, Power and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP which comes under Commerce Ministry's jurisdiction) during the day, and asked them to form search teams of their own to locate the files.
With the SC deadline to submit the files just a few days away, Jaiswal on Thursday urged the representatives from other Ministries to even use weekend holidays for the purpose of locating the documents in question.
The Coal Ministry has also constituted five search teams including those for Coal India ltd, Kolkata and Delhi office and CMPDIl at Ranchi, to search for the files.