No coal irregularity, but will co-operate with CBI: Jaiswal

Denying any corruption in the allocation of coal blocks, Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today asked the media, “Who says there were irregularities in coal blocks allocation?”

However, the minister said whether the allocated companies misused the coal can only be ascertained after the CBI inquiry.

Jaiswal said that though he knows there have been no irregularities in the coal blocks allocation, he has told his ministry to co-operate with the CBI probe.

[caption id=“attachment_340686” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal . AFP”] [/caption]

“Let CBI investigate the matter, we will comment then,” he said. Speaking to reporters, he said his ministry was not aware of any CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) report on the matter.

“There is no CAG report with me. There is no scam in the allocation of coal blocks,” he said.

According to the CAG, mining rights for coal blocks were allocated without auctioning them and this led to massive profits for the chosen companies.

The leaked draft CAG showed government’s failure to auction 155 coal blocks between 2004-09 may have resulted in windfall gains to the tune of Rs 10.7 lakh crore to power companies, some of them PSUs.

The government had denied figures quoted in the leaked report and said there has been no final report from the auditor.

Team Anna had questioned the role of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the suspected scam. The prime minister held the coal portfolio from November 2006 to May 2009.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanasamy also created a political ripple as he said that Rajya Sabha member Ajay Sancheti, who is a friend of BJP president Nitin Gadkari, also got a coal block in the allocation at a “throwaway price”, the process of which is now being questioned.

Earlier, Jaiswal, responding to a question on charges levelled by Team Anna against the government on the matter, said anybody could level any charges against anyone. He also refuted the alleged draft CAG report’s claim that the companies which received mining licenses made windfall gains of Rs 10.6 lakh crore.