Already on the backfoot over Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s dubious land deals, the Telangana muddle, soft-handling of Pakistan and Kishtwar communal clashes, the Government’s woes are set to increase in Parliament over the issue of more files related to coal allocations being found missing.
The Government on Saturday admitted that few files pertaining to the period between 1993 and 2004 were missing. These are apart from the already untraceable files related to allocations given between 2004 and 2009. It turns out, it’s not just the recommendations made by Congress MP Vijay Darda and forwarded by the PMO for the Bander block that have gone missing, even the records of 157 private companies which had applied for blocks but which were not allocated are now traceless.
“It’s true that some files from 1993 to 2004 are missing. We are trying to get the copies of those files ready,” Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal admitted before media persons in Kanpur. He said the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute limited (CMPDI), Ministry of Steel and Ministry of Cement have also been asked to return the files if they have them. Jaiswal maintained his Ministry has given 768 files to the CBI and the investigation was still in process. The issue is sure to fire up the Parliament on Monday, with the CPI(M) making it clear it will raise the issue strongly and the BJP alleging that the Coalgate files have been lost or misplaced to stall the CBI enquiry and save the Prime Minister.
“There are reports that coal block allocation files have gone missing. We will raise it strongly in Parliament on Monday. In an era of digitisation, how can you say that files are missingIJ The Prime Minister will have to reply,” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told mediapersons. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said: “The Government’s approach right from day one is to hide the facts from the CBI enquiry and this is with the sole intention to protect the PM because he was the Coal Minister. And they are into a massive cover up. That is why they say that some files are missing or misplaced. All these are alibis, the real thing is that the Government does not want to share information with CBI and it wants to cover up the whole scam.”
He said the BJP will follow up the matter and expressed the hope that “in the next hearing the Supreme Court also will - because thousands of files have not been handed over to CBI yet, so the enquiry would never be completed”. However, trying to play down the issue, Congress MP Jagdambika Pal said that even if files are misplaced, it will be recovered soon and this would not affect the proceedings of the apex court in this case.
The Pioneer had on July 19, 2013 reported that the Coal Ministry has set up an eight-member committee, headed by its Additional Secretary, to review reasons behind non-availability of files related to the allocation of the specific coal blocks which the CBI is currently investigating for the period between 2004 and 2009.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on coal block allocation stated that nearly 150 coalfields were allotted to private and State-run firms without transparency and objectivity between 2005 and 2009. The BJP has held Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responsible and demanded his resignation, for what has been estimated as a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer by the CAG in coal block allocation.