Congress members question need for CAG meeting on coal allocation

NEW DELHI: Some Congress members of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee today questioned the need for a meeting by the CAG on the issue of coal block allocation saying much of it has already come in public domain.

However, their suggestions were rejected by PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi as CAG Vinod Rai and his team of officials made a detailed presentation on the Government auditor's report on coal-block allocations.

Some Congress members also took objection to the decision of the PAC Secretariat to send several hundred newspaper clippings to the members of the Committee on CAG's report on coal block allocations.

Members claimed that most of the news reports were critical of the Government and did not present a fair picture.

While withdrawing the clippings, Joshi said the documents were sent to update the members on the issue in a simple language.

In its August 23 meeting, PAC had decided to examine the four latest reports of the CAG, including the one on coal block allocation.

The other CAG reports are on Delhi International Airport Ltd, Ultra Mega Power Plants and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

In its report on coal blocks, CAG has said that private firms are likely to gain Rs 1.86 lakh crore from coal blocks that were allocated to them on nomination basis instead of competitive bidding, which amounted to loss to national exchequer.