Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today alleged that the Congress high command did not allow former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to go for auction route on coal blocks and that he was now paying for the "sins" of his party.
"Why Manmohan Singh landed himself in this trouble? Because Congress processes were non-transparent. I sometimes feel pity for Manmohan Singh because he wanted auction route for coal mining. But he could not muster courage to say this," Mr Javadekar told reporters in Hyderabad.
The Union minister was reacting to queries on summons issued by a special CBI court against Manmohan Singh which made him an accused in a case related to the allotment of coal blocks during his term at the helm of previous UPA government.
"It cannot be said that he (Manmohan Singh) is absolutely not guilty. You are in seat of power but you have not exercised your power and that is also guilt. He should have exercised his authority which he did not," he said.
"Sibal said the CAG report is inflated and he said Rs 1.76 lakh crore (for telecom spectrum) and Rs 1.86 lakh crore (for coal) are bogus figures and this cannot be the loss, there was actually zero loss. But what has happened now, the first 32 coal mines (in ongoing coal block auctions) auctioned have fetched Rs 2 lakh crore revenue," he said.
"Those who were saying that there is zero loss now, they need to offer apology to the country. They should apologise because the transparent mechanism adopted by the Narendra Modi government (on coal auction) has given states thousands of crores of rupees. The Centre is not retaining even a single paisa out of it," Mr Javadekar said.
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