Govt incurs Rs 50000 cr loss on losing coal blocks: Cong

Raipur, December 04, 2012

Congress on Tuesday said the state government incurred loss of Rs 50000 crore on deallocation of Bhatgaon-II and Bhatgaon-II extension coal blocks. “This happened because the government gave job of commercial mining and exploration of the two coal blocks to ineligible company owned by Ajay Sancheti who is close to BJP president Nitin Gadkari,” said PCC president Nandkumar Patel and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey.

“The Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC) had obtained the two coal blocks from Centre on condition of meeting the coal requirement of small industrial units of the state, but eventually the ruling party decided to benefit Sancheti,” they said.

“The Centre would never have deallocated the two coal blocks if the CMDC had done the mining and exploration work itself or given the job to any eligible company on the basis of merits maintaining transparency. In fact, the mining and sale of coals for 32 years would have inflated the government exchequer by Rs 50000 crore,” they said.

“The wise decision of CMDC would not only have resuscitated small industrial that are facing coal crisis but also have created ample job opportunities for local youth,” they added.

“According to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the government had incurred loss of Rs 1052 crore by handing over the two coal blocks to Sancheti while the loss assessed on the basis of market rates reached to Rs 25000 crore. Now, after deallocation, the loss is double the assessed one, i.e. Rs 50000 crore,” they said.

“With deallocation of coal blocks, the Centre has also blacklisted the CMDC. For this, surely chief minister Raman Singh (who also holds mining portfolio) and chairman of CMDC are responsible,” they said.

They termed the CMDC chairman’s decision to move to court against deallocation of coal blocks as an attempt intended to divert public attention from his faults that cost dear to the state.

They said the CMDC had proved to be a white elephant as the state did not get benefited by it ever since its constitution, although several crores were spent on it.

“The CMDC has become corruption hub. The government should dissolve it immediately and take stern action against the guilty persons involved in coal scam after conducting CBI inquiry into the matter,” they demanded.