<p>Union Coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal on Saturday admitted that the coal mafia were active in the coal industry.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“Mafia are still there in the coal industry.....it will take another 10 to 20 years to rid the industry of the mafia,” Jaiswal told reporters after attending a function in Allahabad.<br />“I cannot say that the mafia have been wiped out completely from the coal industry,” he added.<br /><br />The minister’s confession comes after former Union coal secretary P C Parakh’s letters written to the prime minister in 2005 stating that the coal ministry, then headed by Shibu Soren, was “run by mafia”.<br /><br />The CBI has accused Parakh of conspiracy and cheating in the allotment of two coal blocks to industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla in Odisha.<br /><br />Soren had allegedly tried to get Parakh transferred out of the coal ministry owing to his advocacy of the bidding process for coal licenses, which the minister opposed.<br /></p>
<p>Union Coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal on Saturday admitted that the coal mafia were active in the coal industry.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“Mafia are still there in the coal industry.....it will take another 10 to 20 years to rid the industry of the mafia,” Jaiswal told reporters after attending a function in Allahabad.<br />“I cannot say that the mafia have been wiped out completely from the coal industry,” he added.<br /><br />The minister’s confession comes after former Union coal secretary P C Parakh’s letters written to the prime minister in 2005 stating that the coal ministry, then headed by Shibu Soren, was “run by mafia”.<br /><br />The CBI has accused Parakh of conspiracy and cheating in the allotment of two coal blocks to industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla in Odisha.<br /><br />Soren had allegedly tried to get Parakh transferred out of the coal ministry owing to his advocacy of the bidding process for coal licenses, which the minister opposed.<br /></p>
