New Delhi:
As the BJP demanded his resignation, the Prime Minister told NDTV that he is ready to make a statement in parliament about allegations that coal fields were sold cheaply on his watch, costing the government 1.86 lakh crores. "We are ready to discuss whatever the Opposition wants," Dr Manmohan Singh said to NDTV today.
The BJP, however, doesn't want a dialogue. "We are not interested in the PM's statement, we just want him to quit," said the BJP's Prakash Javadekar. The main opposition party's angry protests against the PM forced the adjournment of Parliament today.
On Friday, the national auditor presented a report that concluded that from 2005 to 2009, 142 coal fields were allotted, instead of being auctioned. As a result, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said, at least 25 private and state-run companies got 'windfall gains' adding upto 1.86 lakh crores. For some of the years under scrutiny, the PM held direct charge of the Coal Ministry.
That has given the BJP a direct line of attack on Dr Manmohan Singh. It said on Friday that the Prime Minister should "introspect and resign." That demand is "preposterous," reiterated the Congress today.. "We are prepared for a discussion," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. "People ought to know the truth and the difference between the myth and reality," he said.
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said last week that the calculations of the auditor are incorrect. "The back of the envelope calculations," the government said, ignored basics like the fact that the cost of extracting coal varies from mine to mine. The government has also stressed that revenue was not the main goal - at the time, the surging economy and industry needed coal quickly and the private sector was tapped to augment the capacity of the state-run Coal India Limited. The government has also said that the law at the time did not permit for an auction, and that changing administrative and legal policies would have taken years. But the auditor says that competitive bidding could have been introduced in 2006. The law was finally amended in 2010.
What the BJP has failed to explain is the opposition expressed to an auction by some of the states where it was in power. Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh both wrote letters opposing a bidding process.
(What Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh govts said on coal block allocation policy in 2005: Read letters)
The auditor has highlighted that the initial output from mines given to private players was lower than estimated. It has also said that many firms defaulted on basic terms of their contract. For example, it says that of the 86 captive mining blocks, only 28 started production by March 31, 2011. The government will agree that it may have overestimated how quickly and efficiently the private sector could handle production, and that environmental and other clearances took longer than anticipated in many cases.
The CAG, in its report tabled in Parliament, named 25 companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) which were allotted coal blocks in various states.