Says BJP publicity against UPA govt in coalgate false, misleading
Raipur, September 17, 2012
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma says Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and Madhya Pradesh (MP) CM Shivraj Singh are tainted in coal blocks allocation and whatever publicity the BJP is doing against the Congress-led UPA on coalgate is false and misleading. “The CMs of BJP-ruled stated Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan as well as CM of West Bengal ruled by left party had opposed auctioning of coal blocks in written terming it violation of states’ privilege,” he said while talking to media persons at Congress Bhawan on Monday.
He said the Centre would never hesitate in deallocating coal blocks if irregularities in allocation process would be found.
“The BJP disrupted the entire parliamentary session because it did not wanted us to take opportunity to attack Chhattisgarh CM in the parliament. We would have asked why he opposed competitive bidding but the BJP avoided debate on this significant issue in parliament, although the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged it to use this apex forum of democracy to put its stand,” he said.
“The BJP has, in fact, history of adopting double standard in speech and act which surfaces again and again – this time it happened during parliament logjam,” he said.
He explained that there was no such policy for coal mining earlier and the Coal Mining Act was first introduced in 1973 and state-owned company – Coal India Limited was the solely authorised to do the mining job.
“To consolidate the economy and considering growing energy demand, the private sector was allowed to tap the coal mines in 1993, although there was no bidding process even then. The UPA government rather inherited the NDA’s coal policy. Then, with an objective to involve the private stakeholders in coal mining for overall growth of industrial sector we made amendment in Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act (India) (MMDR) in 2010 despite BJP’s opposition,” he said.
During his media interaction, Sharma was accompanied by state Congress incharge BK Hariprasada, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industry Charandas Mahant, PCC president Nandkumar Patel, CLP leader Ravindra Choubey, veteran leader Vidya Charan Shukla, MLAs - Ajit Jogi, Mohammad Akbar, Kuldeep Juneja, party general secretary Ramesh Warlyani, spokespersons Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Mahendra Chhabda, Amir Ali Farishta, Sushil Anand Shukla, etc.
CAG report is fraud
Asked his take over CAG report on coal scam worth Rs 1.86 lakh crore, Sharma first termed the report as fraud and then refused to have said so. “The CAG report is not final. It first goes to Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for scrutiny and thereafter the parliament hold debate on particular subject on the basis of PAC report,” he said.
Crude price high in international market
When asked that the diesel price hike would further increase inflation, he said the hike was inescapable considering rising crude price in international market.
FDI in retail a transparent move
Defending 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi brand retail, he said the Cabinet decided to go ahead with the policy only after consulting with all stakeholders. “We talked to all organisations – big and small regarding our plan for about 18 months. The move is transparent and will surely benefit the producers and end users, i.e. customers,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi is capable of taking decision
When pointed whether Congress was planning to assign ‘major responsibility’ to party general secretary Rahul Gandhi in organisation instead of introducing him in Manmohan Singh-Cabinet, Sharma said the reports were baseless as Gandhi was capable enough to take right decision for himself.
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