Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Monday said that no coal block was given away to companies during his tenure and only a few allotment letters were issued in respect of blocks that were awarded during the first term of the UPA government.
In reply to allegations levelled by an MP that Jaiswal cleared allocation of captive coal blocks in 2011 despite the government passing a law to allocate coal blocks only through auction in 2010, the coal minister said he only cleared allocation of two blocks that were approved earlier, but could not be offered to companies because of general elections.
?Only two coal blocks were there, whose names have been mentioned. They were already approved (in UPA-I), but allocation letter was not issued because general elections were declared. Those allocation letters got issued when UPA-II came in to the power,” he said.
BJP MP Hansraj Ahir, in a letter to PM Manmohan Singh, had alleged that Jaiswal sanctioned coal blocks to three private companies ? SKS Ispat and Power, CGSponge Manufacturers Consortium Coalfield and API Ispat and Powertech ? in violation of the rules of auction. He also accused the coal minister of allocating coal blocks to 35 private companies without getting sanction by the screening committee.
?Forget 35 blocks, not even 0.35 coal blocks were allocated in UPA-II. You can come to our office and find it out, there is no basis (of the allegations),” he said during a hurriedly organised press conference.
Under fire, the government is using all possible opportunity to clarify its position . After Jaiswal’s defence and PM’s statement, the government organised yet another press in the evening where three senior ministers ? P Chuidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Ambika Soni ? issued further clarifications on the process of allocation of coal blocks.