PM should take moral responsibility for loss in coal scam: BJP

HYDERABAD: Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take "moral responsibility" for wrongful loss to exchequer due to the coal scam.

Lack of a transparent policy and not adopting scientific methods in allocation of coal blocks to private firms has caused Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to the exchequer when the Prime Minister was holding portfolio of the coal ministry, Dattatreya alleged while talking to reporters here.

Dr Singh had held charge of the coal ministry during a part of period when coal blocks allocation was done and he had to accept responsibility for the scam, the BJP leader said.

Rejection of CAG report and adverse comment on it was an afront to the institution, he said adding that coal scam was bigger than other scams reported during the UPA regime.

Accusing the UPA government of failing to protect natural resources of the country, Dattatreya said the government was deeply seeped in various scams and people of the country have been fed up with it as one after another scam is being surfaced now and then.

Meanwhile, on the issue of a separate Telangana state, he said Andhra Pradesh party President G Kishan Reddy would stage a 'Satyagraha' in New Delhi on September 3 in support of the demand for introduction of Bill for separate Telangana, in the ongoing session of the Parliament.