Cong dumps BJP's demand for scrapping coal block allocations

Rejecting BJP's demand for cancellation of coal block allocations in the wake of the CAG report, Congress today said it will spur inflation and hike cost of power and steel.

Addressing a special press conference at the AICC, Union Minister Kapil Sibal stressed that there was no question of anyone benefiting from coal block allocations as the mineral was never sold and accused the BJP of raking up the issue because of its desperation to come to power at the Centre before 2014.

"You cannot destroy the entire economic structure? Do they (Opposition) realize the consequences of what they are saying. Those making such demand do not appear to understand the coal sector. If the power and stell plants do not get coal, they will import it.

"Imported coal will be three times costlier. It will lead to costlier power and steel and that will ultimately lead to inflation. Are they not thinking about the country?," Union Minister Kapil Sibal said.

He suggested that the sale of coal on increased prices through the auction of coal blocks would have meant rise in power tariff and steel prices affected the common man.

"Under the nationalisation policy, coal cannot be sold... Coal from the blocks allotted was never sold. So, who could have benefitted...Why is there so much of noise? Did anyone sell the coal? This coal was meant for end users as input for power and steel industries," Sibal said.

He said government would have earned money from the end products through taxes and royalty from the mined coal.

Seeking to take the sting out of the Opposition attack on the government for criticising the CAG, Sibal said that the BJP suffered from "selective amnesia" and cited reported instances from past when BJP leaders attacked the national audit body.

Sibal accused the BJP of not being bothered about the country's development and alleged that the "same ideology" used to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi was being used now to "kill democracy".

Besides, he said that if the CAG is a Constitutional body, so is the Prime Minister.

"You can make allegations against Prime Minister but cannot criticize CAG. What kind of logic is this. If the CAG is not a Constitutional Authority, is the Prime Minister not a Constitutional authority," Sibal said adding "we do not agree with the CAG report".

Claiming that the Congress has never abused the CAG even as it has disagreed with its findings, Sibal cited past statements of the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, the then Minister of Disinvestment Arun Shourie and the then Defence Minister George Fernandes.

While he quoted Shourie as saying that the methodology of computing of notional losses is "idiotic", Sibal said that Jaitley had said that CAG's findings are on "hearsay".

"It is time to refresh Jaitley's memory...BJP talks of subversion of Constitution, but the NDA regime was replete with instances of the party's tirade against Constitutional authorities...BJP described the Prime Minister's statement in Parliament as an attack on both a constitutional authority and constitutionalism. On the contrary, the BJP is undermining Parliamentary democracy by stalling a debate on the issue," he said.

Promising "more expenses" in days to come, Sibal released a set of documents questioning the transparency of the coal block allocations made during the NDA regime.

"Allocation of coal blocks between 1998 and August 2003 was done without any proceedure whatsoever. Guidelines adopted for allocation of coal blocks to the public/private sector for captive mining allowed a freehand to the Screening Committee.

"If the Screeining Committee's proceedures post 2005 are being questioned and presumptive loss calculated, what about presumptive loss on allocations made between 1998 and 2004," Sibal asked.