New Delhi:
Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati has asked the government to cancel nearly 60 coal block allocations, which have failed to take off for several years.
The Attorney General is likely to inform the Supreme Court next week whether the government will cancel these licences. If the government accepts Mr Vahanvati's recommendation, the future of 58 coal blocks will be on the line. Of these, 29 blocks were allocated to private firms before 2006. And the rest were allotted after the UPA government came to power at the Centre in 2004.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held charge of the ministry between November 2006 and May 2009.
The proposed cancellation of the coal blocks is likely to upset the government's economic revival roadmap. The shortage of coal has impacted power generation, and overall industrial production, adding to the perception of policy paralysis plaguing the government.
Observers draw important parallels in the probes conducted by the CBI into coal block allocations and the 2G spectrum. In 2012, the Supreme Court had ordered the termination of 122 2G spectrum licences granted during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja on the ground that they had been awarded in a "totally arbitrary and unconstitutional manner.''
The cancellation proper marks a critical phase in the Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the coal blocks allocation scam by the CBI, which is likely to file on Monday a status report on the progress made in the probe by it by December 31. The CBI has been asked by the Supreme Court to probe all allotments made since 1993.
The CBI will tell the top court that it has completed its investigation into six FIRs registered by it the scam. The agency has till now filed a total of 14 FIRs till now.