New Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had unearthed coal scam

Chandrapur MP Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, credited with unearthing the coal scam that dented the credibility of the United Progressive Alliance government, on Sunday became one of two politicians from Maharashtra to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet. As minister of state, Ahir may now have a clean-up job to do in the coal ministry and Coal India Ltd (CIL).

Ahir, as chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on coal, was the man who had raised doubts that state-run Coal India was allegedly batting for its competitors during the coal block allocations over the last decade. He made public the fact that around 200 CIL employees, most of them senior bureaucrats, later joined various private coal mining companies after retirement.

"These officials could never advocate for Coal India when coal blocks were allocated, but have now joined hands with their earlier competitors," he had said, talking to DNA before he was inducted into the Union Cabinet. Ahir had suspected irregularities in the coal block allocations around nine years ago. The Supreme Court earlier this year cancelled the coal block allocations stating that they were done in an illegal manner through an "ad-hoc and casual" approach and "without application of mind."

"It seems these people were preparing their post retirement plans while being in Coal India. It is ironic that Coal India people gave away coal blocks to other companies and not to their own company," said Ahir. He said he believed that executing the coal scam was not possible without the collusion of officials who were part of the screening committees. All these officials, in spite of their being on screening committees, could not get the coal blocks for Coal India-- but companies with no mining experience, or bogus companies, did. Coal India's performance in the country has been hit badly but the company has acquired a Rs 6,000 crore mining project in Mozambique. "The officials have already spent Rs 135 crores on the project, while nothing concrete has come up on ground there. And back home it is all a mess as well," Ahir claimed.

As the mining sector has been hugely affected due to the allocation scam, India would have to import 185 million metric tonnes of coal in 2016-17, as per the coal ministry. The imports would mainly come from Australia and Indonesia, whose coal is rich in sulphur content, and thus not as good as Indian coal.