TNI Bureau: Soon after the CAG reports on coal, power and aviation were tabled in Parliament today, the Opposition attacked the UPA government demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his role in the scam, which is bigger than 2G scandal.
Once again the UPA was criticised after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) came down heavily for the government’s flawed policy on coal blocks allocation, power projects and Delhi international airport. It names 25 companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power which have got the blocks in various States.
The BJP accused that the PM was directly responsible for the alleged loss due to coal block allocation as he was the coal minister when the allocation took place.
The CAG in its report said that the allocation causes a loss of about 1.86 lakh crore to the state exchequer.
Demanding the resignation of the PM, the BJP said that Congress is making new records in corruption. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said, “Prime Minister is directly responsible. He now cannot hide behind any argument. No Raja or Chidambaram can be used as a shield as in the 2G case”.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that Dr Singh must introspect and should quit the office on moral ground after the reports were tabled in the parliament.
“The Government is badly exposed by the three CAG reports on power, coal and Delhi airport. The magnitude of these scams, according to the CAG report, is between Rs 1.6 and 1.86 lakh crore”, said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
“It is nothing but loot and plunder of the country. The UPA has no moral right to be in power after the revelation of these CAG reports. The CVC has handed over the probe to the CBI and we are following it, he added.
However, Coal Ministry rubbished the CAG reports defending the PM. The coal minister Prakash Jaiswal said that the losses cannot be estimated on unknown facts. He termed CAG’s method of calculating pricing of coal blocks as completely faulty.
The CAG has prepared the reports looking at only a few aspects of allocation. He said that there couldn’t have been more transparent way for coal block allocation. Defending the government, he said that only 30 coal blocks were operational out of the total allocated.