New Delhi:
Coal Minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal addressing a press conference this evening, spoke about the storm over the coal report. Here are the highlights:
- Everyone has the right to use Parliament for politics but it's not to be used only for political agendas
- Opposition knows that if a debate takes place, it will be exposed
- PM had no obligation to meet the coal needs of the time and to help grow the economy
- His decisions led to a high growth rate at a time when there was a huge recession in the US
- State governments were consulted and their approval was taken for allocation of all coal blocks
- But if the bidding process had been initiated, there would have been greater transparency and our government tried to introduce this but Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal - all state governments aggressively opposed this because they said higher coal costs would hit industrial development in their states