BJP MP slams UPA for 'coalgate'

Balbir Punj said allottees had got coal blocks for speculative purposes

Upping the ante against the UPA-II in the Coalgate scam, senior BJP leader and  Rajya Sabha member Balbir Punj on Sunday alleged that seventeen firms had managed to get coal blocks allocated without appearing before the screening committee even once.

He said most of the allottees had got the blocks for speculative purposes.

Addressing party members in Chandigarh on Sunday, Punj gave a clarion call to workers and people to launch a relentless struggle against UPA II to ensure that those guilty in the scam were brought to book and money lost in the “multi-billion scam” is restored to the exchequer.

Justifying the disruption of Parliament by his party, Punj said that the two Houses were not merely forums for debate but also had the responsibility to ensure the accountability of the executive towards the country.

Punj said the CAG’s findings about coal block allocations have been substantiated by the government’s own inter-ministerial group and the Central Bureau of Investigation. 

Punj claimed that the inter-ministerial group (IMG) was constituted on June 21 to find out which companies had operationalised mining in the blocks allocated to them.

“The IMG, in its draft report, recommended that out of 57 allocations, (for 145 coal blocks), 53 deserved to be cancelled,” he said.

The CBI he said has already filed six FIRs in this connection and there is strong possibility of many more cases to be registered.

The Prime Minister’s assertion of no wrongdoing, Punj said, ran contrary not only to the findings of the CAG, but also that of the IMG and CBI.

He said the PM was wrong  when he claimed that chief ministers of the states had argued against competitive bidding.

He said the fact is that by 2006, all the BJP ruled states had agreed to competitive bidding with the rider that they be given a share in the auction revenue.

He said the BJP will take the fight on Coalgate scam to its logical end and work for the cancellation of allotment of all coal blocks.