A day after the Prime Minister offered to quit public life if allegations of corruption against him were proved, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal insisted that the process of allocating coal blocks was conducted in a transparent manner in consultation with states.
Jaiswal termed the allegations of Team Anna against the Prime Minister as "unfortunate".
He said the government was not aware of any CAG report on allocation of coal blocks and the allegations by the Team Anna about losses of Rs 1.8 lakh crore were "unfounded" and "baseless."
The allocations between 1993 and 2009 were made in a transparent manner in consultations with the state governments and helped in the growth of power sector, he said.
He said Chief Secretary level officials from states participated in the process of coal blocks allocation and "not a single block was allocated after the Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha."
The Minister maintained that if the UPA government not allotted the coal blocks to private sector which helped in augmenting output and accelerating growth, the common masses would have been facing double the burden of the said losses assessed by the CAG.
His statement came a day after the Prime Minister strongly rebutted the allegations of corruption against him and offered to quit public life and face any punishment if charges were proved.