Minutes of the 26th Screening Committee meeting that form the basis of coal block allocation are one of the seven crucial files that the CBI is still waiting to get from the Coal Ministry.
The minutes of this Screening Committee meeting are important for investigation into all the 13 FIRs registered so far in order to establish the irregularities in the award of coal blocks between 2006 and 2009, a period when the Coal Ministry was under the charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The CBI had sought the minutes of the 26th Screening Committee meeting along with other files/reports/documents from the Coal Ministry through a letter 1279 dated April 10/2013 and supplemented it with a reminder on August 14. However, the agency has not received the file till date.
The 26th Screening Committee meeting was held on May 1, 2005. Following the CBI’s submission before the Supreme Court about the missing files, the Coal Ministry claimed that only draft minutes were available in the section’s records. The Coal Ministry has subsequently sent a request to Coal India limited (CIl) and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute limited (CMPDI). While CMPDI has told the Ministry that it does not have the file, a response from CIl is yet to come.
Another crucial document for the coal block investigation, yet to be handed over by the Coal Ministry to the CBI, is the file bearing number 13016/53/2007-CA-I with comments on Tl Shankar Committee report. The Coal Ministry has not traced the file so far. The Tl Shankar Committee report on reforms in coal sector was submitted in two parts, one in 2005 and the other in 2007. Investigators are trying to ascertain if adherence to reform measures could have prevented the wholesale award of coal blocks to dubious firms.
About 150 coal blocks were allocated in just three years during 2006-09 and just 45 blocks were allocated between 1990 and 2004.
Officials said though the CBI is not examining policy issues involving coal block allocations, the agency aims to investigate if the recommendations of Tl Shankar Committee report were approved by the Coal Ministry but were deliberately not adhered to while awarding coal blocks.
Apart from seeking a probe into the role of officials of Prime Minister's Office, the CVC had in its reference to CBI specifically asked the agency to probe the quantum of loss due to irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. Off-the-record, CBI officials said these files are pivotal for the ongoing investigation as they will help establish the existing procedures for award of coal blocks and any deliberate violations of the same would nail the criminality of the public servants and their possible connivance with the private mining firms. Once the violations into the existing rules and procedures are established through investigation, the probe will then hinge on pinpointing the loss incurred by the exchequer.
However, the CBI is yet to receive the report of financial experts of CIl who had submitted the dossier on financial viability of the applicant firms seeking coal blocks.
Meanwhile, the vigilance panel has asked the CBI Director to present a status report on the missing files on Wednesday. The CVC has superintendence authority over the CBI and the investigation into the coal block allocations were initiated at its behest following a complaint from BJP leaders.