New Delhi:
Raman Singh, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, says there is no need for the CBI to investigate allegations that his government allowed a sweetheart deal for a company owned by a Member of Parliament from his party, the BJP.
A report by the government's auditor says that SMS Infrastructure, owned party by Ajay Sancheti, a Rajya Sabha MP from Malkapur - offered "vastly low" rates for mining rights to coal fields in 2008. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) says that the Chattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation or CMDC should have tried to find other bidders and better rates for the coal fields in question. The loss, as a result of this deal, was 1000 crores, says the auditor.
The Congress has demanded the Chief Minister's resignation and a CBI inquiry. "Every year, there are 16-30 reports by the CAG...it just gives an estimate of profit or loss," he said. When asked about the opposition's call for his resignation, he smiled. "For the past six-seven years, the Congress has been wanting me, Dr Raman Singh to resign."
The chief minister denies that Mr Sancheti's political clout - he is known to be close to party president Nitin Gadkari - tilted the deal in his favour. When the contract was awarded to his company, Mr Sancheti was neither an MP nor a member of the BJP national executive, a committee of its leaders. "If we start seeing how many politicians have leases or contracts, then names of people from Congress and other parties will also come up," said the chief minister. "We have to see what was the condition in 2007-8 when the lease was given. If a person becomes a member of a political party, that does not mean he has to give up contracts he has undertaken."
The report by the auditor will now be studied by a committee of law-makers or MLAs from different parties in Chattisgarh.