Coal block allocation: I don't think there is any scam, says H M Nerurkar, MD, Tata Steel

KOLKATA: Tata Steel managing director H M Nerurkar has said he did not see any wrong doing in coal block allocation.

"I don't think there is any scam," Nerurkar said today. "There could be one or two bad examples. But majority of the people wanted to develop the mines and use the coal. I don't think there is any scam. The process followed is more or less correct," he said.

"..there was a policy and people followed it, and there is nothing out of turn or anything which has happened," he added.

Nerurkar, addressing the 51st annual general meeting of the Indian Refractory Makers Association, said, "mining and scam have become synonymous these days".

CAG in its final report reported a Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to the exchequer in coal block allocation.

Given uncertainties surrounding allocation of coal block, Nerurkar said personally he did not favour competitive bidding.

He said he was against competitive bidding as a party who was handed over a coal block did not know about the type of coal the block had, exact reserves of the block had and the price it would get after extracting coal.