‘Government abused powers in coal block allotments’

TMC Headed house committee calls procedure unauthorized : The Times News Network on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 reported that Parliament’s standing committee on coal and steel has indicted the government for “ totally abusing its powers” in allotting coal mines between 1993 and 2010 through the “ most non- transparent procedure” to “ few fortunate ones for their own benefit”. The report pointed out a bias in favor of the private sector to bolster its argument. Sector – wise allocations show that out of a total of 81 blocks allocated to power sector, 27 were given to private firms, 12 to UMPPs (Centre’s show case ultra –mega power projects) and 42 to government entities. The report did not quantify the loss, saying no information was made available either on the quantity or value of the mined coal. Last year, the federal auditor had said that the government extended wind fall gains of Rs.1.86 lakh crore to private entities by allotting blocks to them without bidding. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++