Coalgate: Narayanasamy slams BJP, says UPA followed appropriate procedure

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Chennai - Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy on Saturday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for demanding Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's resignation over the coal scam, saying the government adopted a very appropriate procedure while allocating coal blocks and the decision in this regard was taken collectively by taking the state governments into confidence.
 
Narayanasamy accused the BJP Government of making coal allocations in 2003 without even receiving the application.
 
"As far as the coal block allocation is concerned, before the UPA Government came in 2004, in 2003 the BJP Government - when honourable Vajpayee was the Prime Minister -- 24 coal allocations have been given by them without receiving applications," said Narayanasamy.
 
"And when our government came in 2004, our Prime Minister made it very clear, we call for an application by giving the advertisement. The applications were received, the state chief secretaries were in the Screening Committee, Coal Secretary was in the Screening Committee, Power Secretary was in the Screening Committee. That screening committee went into the details," he added.
 
Narayanasamy further said the coal block allocation was given to two states asking them to start the power production.
 
"The states were given and also the private operators were given looking into their viability. And this decision has been taken collectively by taking the state governments into confidence," he added.
 
Reiterating that the CAG has to function within the constitutional mandate, Narayanasamy said the CAG has no authority or right to comment on the policy of the government.
 
"About the CAG report on the coal block allocation is concerned, I would like to say that the government gave all the documents to the CAG. CAG has to work within a certain mandate that has been given to it under the Constitution of India," said Narayanasamy.
 
"The policy framing is the domain of the Government of India that is an elected government.  CAG has no authority or right to comment on the policy of the government. But unfortunately CAG questioned the authority of the government, which is totally unwarranted and against the mandate given to them," he added.
 
The BJP has held the Prime Minister responsible for what has been estimated as loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores by the CAG in coal block allocation and demanded his resignation.
 
The CAG report on coal block allocation states that nearly 150 coalfields were allotted to private and state-run firms without transparency and objectivity between 2005 and 2009.   
 
The report does not indict the Prime Minister or his office, but the BJP is emphasizing on the fact that for three of the years under scrutiny, the Prime Minister held direct charge of the Coal Ministry.
 

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