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The coal scam disrupted both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, this time over missing files pertaining to the pre-2004 period, and thereby derailed the United Progressive Alliance’s food Bill. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement and was not content with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal’s statement that all efforts would be made to locate the missing files.
Since morning, both Houses saw noisy scenes as BJP members raised slogans and flashed placards. Pradhan Mantri saamne aao, koyla file dhoond ke lao (PM, come forward, locate the missing coal files), Pradhan Mantri jawab do, koyla file kahan gayab hue (PM, explain where the coal files went missing) were the slogans on the placards.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj urged the Speaker to direct the prime minister to make a statement in the House. (Singh had held the coal portfolio from 2006 to 2009, when the controversial coal blocks were allocated.)
Swaraj went on to allege the files included applications for blocks and had gone missing as some big shots of the Congress were involved.
The Rajya Sabha, too, witnessed repeated disruptions over the issue and wanted Jaiswal to recuse himself and have the prime minister reply instead.
Jaiswal in his statement admitted that “some files could not be located in the ministry”.
“All efforts are being made to locate documents which are not readily available...My ministry would leave no stone unturned in tracing and providing the documents sought by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation),” he said.
A total of 769 files and documents running into 150,000 pages have been handed over to the investigating agency, CBI, the minister said, adding an inter-ministerial committee headed by an additional secretary had been set up to look into the issue on July 11, 2013, and any action would be taken only after its report.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, then questioned Jaiswal. “Will you please tell us the list of those companies whose files have been made to miss or disappear...? Who are these people who are the beneficiaries?”
Jaitley’s opening statements, “Files don’t disappear but are made to disappear” was met with loud uproar from the Treasury benches. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury asked the coal minister whether the ministry had lodged a First Information Report about the missing files, to which Jaiswal stated: “They are missing and there are no reports of them being stolen.”
Later in the evening, the BJP made a full frontal attack on the Congress and the prime minister, with its spokesperson Prakash Javadekar saying: “The Congress has been fully exposed in the case. The case of missing files is yet another effort to save the prime minister in the coal scam.”
