A day after coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal accused five coal rich states including Odisha of blocking the process of competitive bidding of the dry fuel, chief minister Naveen Patnaik shot back at the Centre, defending his government's stand on the issue.
“Coal is a subject on which the central government has complete authority. Our government has been asking for an auction based system for allocation of mineral resources including coal for the last few years. While the Centre has done it for coal recently, it is yet to do it for other minerals,” Patnaik told newspersons here. Stepping up ante against the Congress led UPA regime, Patnaik said, “In fact, all of you are aware that I have been demanding for Mineral Resource Rent Tax on the super normal profits made by private iron ore miners. This has been rejected by the Centre on extremely flimsy grounds. This itself shows the attitude of the Central government.”
“My government has always stood for value addition within the state which means more jobs for our citizens and more revenue for the development programmes,” he added.
On Wednesday, the coal minister accused the Opposition-ruled Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Odisha and West Bengal of blocking the smooth implementation of the competitive bidding process, initiated by the Centre in 2004.
Jaiswal clarified that competitive bidding for coal could not be introduced due to stringent opposition from these states and it would be wrong to blame Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue. “The coal ministry tried but in vain to bring the erring states on board. The states had opposed the bidding idea as they apprehended this would impact industrial activity as coal would become costlier,” Jaiswal said at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Though offering coal through the competitive bidding route was first mooted in 2004, the modalities of its implementation were yet to be worked out by the Centre. It is estimated that the process of auctioning of coal blocks would take off by the end of this year.
Jaiswal’s statement has come at a time when the Opposition has created a ruckus in the Parliament after the latest revelation from Comptroller & Auditor General of India which in its latest report held that private firms were likely to gain a staggering Rs 1.86 lakh crore from allocation of 57 coal blocks without competitive bidding between 2005 and 2009.