Coal-gate: Gadkari's friend may have benefited, says Narayanasamy

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanasamy today 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 “throwaway price”, the process of which is now questioned. “I am not saying that Nitin Gadkari recommended him but Ajay Sancheti is known to the BJP president. Both are from Nagpur and he might have,” Narayanasamy told Times Now, in an attempt to drag in the BJP and politicise the issue. The minister, however, refused to go by the figure that the CAG cited as loss to the exchequer. [caption id=“attachment_329526” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Dragging the NDA. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] “I want to tell the opposition political parties and the Anna team that the CAG figures are not sacrosanct,” Narayanasamy said. Sancheti is said to have got a coal block in Chhattisgarh during the allocation. The coal-gate is generating high political heat with Team Anna and the Opposition directly attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the alleged irregularities. The prime minister was in charge of the coal ministry when 155 coal blocks were allocated to 100-odd companies for mining. The Central Vigilance Commission has referred to CBI the case of alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks to public and private companies. CBI officials, who are tight-lipped about the reference issue, reportedly held a meeting on Thursday in which the issue was discussed in detail, sources said. The meeting, which was chaired by the CBI chief, discussed all aspects of the reference received from the vigilance panel and also which branch should handle the probe, they said. According to the leaked draft CAG appearing in the media, 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 was no final report from the auditor. However, the opposition and Team Anna had demanded a probe in the case. With PTI input