Cong slams passage of coal, mines bills; terms it 'backdoor de-nationalisation'

New Delhi: Congress on Friday alleged that the passage of the coal and mines and minerals Bills in Parliament would “take away the rights” of states and enable “backdoor de-nationalisation”. “Earlier, they (BJP) used to make allegations of ‘J-tax’. Now, it seems there will be a ‘P-tax’. P for Piyush Goyal,” Congress leader Digvijaya Singh told reporters at an AICC briefing in the national capital. [caption id=“attachment_2165489” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress General Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh. PTI[/caption] He was alluding to BJP’s attack on former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan in the run up to Lok Sabha polls when Narendra Modi had come up with the ‘J-tax’ barb to refer to allegations that a bribe had to be paid to secure environmental clearances for projects during her tenure. The AICC press conference, which was addressed jointly by former Commerce minister Anand Sharma and former Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh along with Singh, saw the leaders making allegations of “backdoor de-nationalisation” of coal through the passage of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015. Suggesting an increasing left-of-the-centre tilt, the Congress leaders charged that the measures were anti-poor, anti-tribal and anti-states. However, a number of regional parties did not support Congress’s stand on these Bills in Parliament. The leaders at the same time insisted that Congress is “not against auction”. “A false impression is being created by BJP that Congress and other parties which opposed the Bill are opposed to auction… We are for auction. We have always been for auction, unlike the BJP, which has changed its stand,” the Congress leaders said as they claimed that their party was the first to allow auction starting with the late PV Narsimha Rao’s tenure as prime minister. They said the delay happened in auction of coal blocks as the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states first opposed it and the matter went to Supreme Court. “Congress’ objection to both the Bills is based on two things – there was simply not enough consultation and the manner in which both the Bills were bamboozled and forced through as well as their provisions,” Ramesh said. Claiming that Congress has taken a principled stand on the two Bills and is opposing them as they go against the interests of labour, tribal rights and common man, Singh referred to the nationalisation of coal done by Indira Gandhi in 1973. “Through the backdoor, the government weakened that nationalisation. It carried out a de-nationalisation of coal through backdoor,” Singh said, adding that the Ordinances, which were converted into Bills, have “taken away the rights” of states. Singh said that through the Ordinance, the government has taken away the right of the states to decide who will be the end users of the mines. “Coal and minerals are state properties. Now, all the rights of the states have been snatched away. Mines belong to states but what will be the end use will not be decided by them. We had given an amendment while Centre can do the auction, states’ consent should be there to decide the end use. “The Bill (on coal) has also taken away the right of the states to suspend mining activity in case of violations. So, the state will only be guarding the mines with no rights whatsoever,” Singh said. He said that under the coal law, only assets are being transferred and not the liabilities and the workers who worked in mines prior to new allottees will have no say. He also alleged that “corruption of lakhs and crores” could be behind one of the provisions of the new Mines and Mineral Act. Ramesh said, “A government that claimed to be committed to transparency has de-nationalised coal sector in most in-transparent (sic) manner. With this law, the forest rights law has become a formality.” He said that the new MMDR Act had reduced the royalty payment to district mineral fund (DMF) by 33 percent from 100 percent, which was in the UPA’s Bill in case of minerals other than coal. Ramesh claimed that each district would have got Rs 200 to 250 crore had the provisions remained and said that the government has limited the money and power to the DMF, which will affect 100 mineral intensive districts having large tribal populations. PTI