7/31/2019 What is Coal Scam is All About

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have any business to be there.The real beneficiaries were big

players. A rough assessment showsthat a couple of industrial houses,as mentioned by the CAG, bagged alions share of blocks. The Centrecannot deny responsibility, as at-

tempted by Jaiswal, for awardingblocks free of cost for merchantpower generation, thereby helpingprivate players earn a windfallprofit. And, we are not talkingabout coal blocks allotted to firms

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What the Central Minister didnot say is that till date the politicalclass, cutting across ideology, is yetto come to terms with the decisionto auction blocks. And, it has suffi-cient reasons to be ill at ease withthe idea.

It is with political connectionsthat certain corporates managed toacquire access to natural re-sources. The list of consortiummembers in blocks makes it clearthat there are many who do not

The report of the Comptroller andAuditor General of India (CAG) oncoal block allotment to private par-ties amounts to a very damagingaccusation of financial irregularity.

Unlike some other scams suchas the much-publicised securitiesscam, fodder scam or even the lat-est 2G scam where a section ofthe business and politics class

stood to gain, coalgate can un-settle the high and mighty acrossthe board. Hence, there are strongdoubts about whether the bene-ficiaries of this staggering scamwill ever be taken to task. The in-

dications were clear in the rejoin-der issued by the Union CoalMinister Sriprakash Jaiswal lastweek, elaborating the roadblocksin introducing competitive biddingfor block allotment.

HOW IT HAPPENED

States such as Rajasthan, Chhatis-garh and West Bengal have op-posed a bidding process, Jaiswalsaid. This has left the state dis-pensation route a major sourceof corruption open. Examiningthe parties in power in these Statessince 2004, it is obvious that politi-cal groupings across the ideolog-ical spectrum Left, Right andCentre are allegedly involved inthe scam.

Similarly, the industry playerswho secured coal blocks werefrom varied backgrounds in-cluding those with no track recordin power generation or even manu-facturing. Yet, they managed to se-cure coal blocks against proposedprojects.

The route was simple: take the

state leadership into confidenceand they would, in turn, recom-mend the name for block alloca-tion. A little known Kolkata-basedcompany, for example, promisedhuge capacities in Chhatisgarh.

What the coal scam

Only one of the 57 coal blocks awarded to the private sector isfunctional. AP

PRATIM

RANJAN BOSE

For the arbitrary

distribution of coalblocks, a wideswathe of thepolitical and businessclass is responsible.