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PC Parakh’s labelling of Prime Minister as conspirator number three in allocation of coal mine to Kumar Manglam Birla-promoted Hindalco is not without reason. The screening committee, of which Parakh was the chairman when he was the coal secretary, makes recommendations to the coal ministry for allocation captive coal mines but the final approval comes from the minister. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the Cabinet minister of coal when Hindalco was admitted as a co-developer of Talabira II coal block in 2005 along with Union government-owned Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).
In this case of Hindalco, Parakh says the company was as much eligible and competent as the public sector NLC and, therefore, it was decided at that time to include Hindalco and give mining rights to a joint venture with Neyveli. “It was fair to both the companies,” he said in an interview with Business Standard.
According to the procedure laid out for giving out captive coal mining rights, the ministry of coal makes direct allocation of coal mines to government companies under the government dispensation route. For private companies, it does allocation based on the recommendations of an inter-ministerial screening committee.
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Officials who have been part of the screening committee say its job was to sift through applications and examine the capability and requirement of companies. Parakh too argues “the screening committee makes recommendations for allocation of coal block but its recommendations are not always mandatory for reasons to be recorded in writing. The government can deviate from the Screening Committee recommendations, whether it is the secretary or the Minister. If the government feels that the decision needs to be reviewed it can always be reviewed. Screening Committee is not a decision making body. Decision is always with the minister”.
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The government set up the screening committee to implement the provisions of captive mining of coal under the chairmanship of coal secretary through an administrative order in July 1992. Its job was to consider applications made by various companies interested in captive mining and to allocate coal blocks for development subject to the provisions of statutes governing coal mining. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, till 2004, there was no clearly spelt out criteria for allocation of coal mines and most the mines were allocated to the applicants on the basis of letter of recommendations from the concerned state governments.
On the procedure of allocation of captive mines, the coal ministry website says applications received in the Ministry of Coal in five copies, after being checked for eligibility and completeness, would be sent to the administrative Ministry/State Government concerned for their evaluation and recommendations. “After receipt of recommendations of the administrative Ministry/State Government concerned, the Screening Committee would consider the applications and make its recommendations. Based on the recommendations of the Screening Committee, the Ministry of Coal will determine the allotment.” Herein lies the basis of Parakh’s argument that the prime minister is equally to be blamed.
Much before the allocation to Hindalco was made, Parakh himself on September 25, 2004 told Dasari Narayana Rao, the then minister of state for coal, different kinds of pulls and pressures were being experienced by the screening committee during the decision-making process and, therefore, it was desirable that competitive bidding route be adopted.
When the Central Bureau of Investigation names Birla, Parakh and “competent authority” in its 14th FIR in coal scam, the investigating agency has fallen short of naming the prime minister but the competent authority here was Manmohan Singh in his capacity as coal minister. Clearly, nine years after Parakh raised the issue of pulls and pressure, the coal ghost seems to have engulfed the entire government.
