Parakh was an upright officer: Ex-Cabinet Secretary

NEW DELHI: As the controversy over coal block allocation to Hindalco takes twists and turns, former Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi today said the then Coal Secretary P C Parakh was an "upright" officer and he was retained in office till retirement because of that.

His clean chit to Parakh came after a letter written by the then Coal Secretary surfaced in which he said that Coal Mafia "is not outside the Government".

Parakh, who has been named as an accused in a CBI FIR in the case relating to Hindalco, had then responded to allegations made by the then Minister Shibu Soren who wanted his transfer from the Ministry.

Chaturvedi, now a member of Planning Commission, told reporters today,"I consider Parakh a very upright officer."

On the letter written by Parakh, Chaturvedi said there were complaints against him and he was asked to offer his comments.

"For that, he offered all these comments (letter). So based on that, we didn't find any merit in the complaints against Parakh and rejected it...I do recall very well the people wanted to shift Mr Parakh and we saw to it that he remains in the seat till he retires," Chaturvedi said.

In the letter in 2005, Parakh had said,"it (Coal mafia) exists within the Ministry of Coal, Coal companies, trade unions, State administrations and local political leadership. There are no easy and shortcut solutions to the problem of Coal mafia in the current political and administrative milieu of the country.