DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 15 (MExN): After the largely unfruitful last monsoon session owing to disruption of Parliament by BJP over the controversial CAG report on coal blocks allocation, Congress ministers and its party functionaries have been visiting states to clarify on the issue.
Congress says that the visits were necessitated since the opposition did not allow the Parliament to function thereby denying public the right to know the issues that were being debated in the country.
Visiting the State was Union Minister of State for HRD, D. Purandeswari and AICC General Secretary i/c of Nagaland, Luizinho Faleiro who addressed media persons at Police Complex, Chumukedima on Saturday.
Purandeswari said though there were a lot of facts in public domain yet they don’t reach the people since the kind of work that was to be carried out on the floor of the house was not allowed.
Speaking only on the issue of allocation of coal blocks, she said much of the doubts could have been clarified if discussion was allowed in the Parliament and blamed the “obstructionist attitude” of the opposition for the lost session. The issue of coalgate arose from a report of the CAG which criticized the government for allocating coal blocks to private sectors.
However, Purandeswari said the policy of allocation of coal blocks to private parties was not a new policy introduced by UPA but that the policy existed since 1993. She pointed out that the NDA during 1998 to 2004 had allocated captive coal blocks to 16 private sector companies and 16 blocks to government sector companies without following any transparent procedure.
She said that the UPA, after 2005, decided to bring in a transparent system and brought in open bidding system but expressed regret that the states having large deposits of coal and ruled by BJP and non-Congress parties had strongly opposed the open bidding system.
Purandeswari said the BJP had stalled the parliamentary proceedings as it was aware that the government was in possession of letters written to it by the Chief Ministers of BJP and non-Congress ruled states opposing bidding of coal blocks.
She slammed the BJP for demanding the resignation of Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh who also holds the coal portfolio, on “frivolous charges and unfair allegation.” “He (Singh) is a man of high integrity and nobody can vouch for the integrity of Manmohan Singh. He is not resigning,” Purandeswari said and added that the BJP should do some introspection.
She said the BJP owed an apology to the nation for “simply humiliating” the voting rights of the people, the democratic procedures and the highest house of the parliament. “BJP did not give us opportunity to discuss (the issue),” she added.
Purandeswari said the CAG report was “flawed” and that the coal ministry’s version was not asked for before finalising its report, as was the tradition. She said the CAG had calculated that Rs 1.86 lakh crore could have been earned (loss to exchequer) in the course of mining by the private sector through 35 years, a part of which could have accrued to government. However, Purandeswari said the methodology of computing adopted by the CAG was “erroneous and misleading.”
Supplementing her was Faleiro who also described the CAG calculation as “erroneous and irresponsible” and elaborated on it. He said the CAG had come to the conclusion taking the cost of mining 1 ton of coal by Coal India Ltd (CIL). The CAG then calculated the sale price of 1 ton of coal of CIL, he added.
However, Faleiro said none of the private sector companies, unlike CIL were entitled to sell coal or trade in coal and so comparison with CIL was “deeply flawed.” He also said that the CAG forgot to deduct the coal royalty and 33 % corporate tax on profit on the allottees. Among other points, Faleiro further said that the CAG did not take into account the huge quantum of investment by private sector for generation of power and for production of steel etc.
He questioned why the CAG had not audited the period before 2004 when the BJP-led NDA was at the helm of affairs.
He said that the BJP has accused the Congress of blaming the CAG but forgot what they said about the CAG in the past. He recalled that Arun Shourie had called the CAG “idiotic” on the issue of disinvestment of Centaur Hotel while Arun Jaitley said that the CAG had acted on “hearsay and not on facts,” with reference to the coffin scam.
Today when we question the CAG’s calculations, the BJP is criticizing us, he said and added that instead of demanding PM’s resignation, the top BJP leadership should resign for misleading the country.
NPCC President, S.I. Jamir, CLP leader Tokheho Yepthomi and a host of Congress functionaries were also present during the press conference.
