Cong for issuance of white paper on Pushp Steel case

Raipur, May 18, 2013

Continuing its attack on chief minister Raman Singh on Pushp Steel case, Congress on Saturday demanded for issuance of white paper on the matter in three days. “If the government will not do so in given timeframe then we will disclose more facts about Pushp Steel,” said state Congress general secretary Bhupesh Baghel and party’s chief spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi while talking to scribes at Congress Bhawan.

“The government is continuously lying on this matter. Whenever we talked on this issue, the government clarified. In fact, it is clarifying in pieces, which indicates how frustrated and frightened is the CM,” they said.

They said then under-secretary of state mining department William Kujur first wrote a letter to Pushp Steel and asked it to get forest and environmental clearance from Centre. 

After receiving the letter, Pushp Steel obtained clearance from Centre by submitting copy of MoU it did with the state government as well as state’s recommendation letter for mining lease (ML) and prospecting licence (PL),” they added. 

“Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh government in its letter to Centre neither informed it about cancellation of MoU, ML and PL of Pushp Steel nor mentioned that the matter was pending with court. Instead, the state government wrote in favour of Pushp Steel which indicates that it wanted to benefit the company from the beginning,” they said.

“The CBI’s raids in Pushp Steel’s Raipur unit and our letter to the central agency seeking probe into the matter infuriated the CM, who, in frustration said nobody can challenge him in this case. Instead of challenging, let him issue white paper on the matter,” they said.

Through white paper, Congress asked the government to tell the norm to enter into agreement with any company and to what extent the particular norm was followed in case of Pushp Steel.

They further asked to what extent the government followed policies and procedures in recommending ML and PL for Pushp Steel. They also sought status of the matter in court and ML and PL file. 

They said the government should also clarify why approval to fell trees was given to Push Steel when the matter was pending with the court and ML and PL was not given to the company.