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Former Coal Minister Dasari Narayana Rao, who has been questioned by CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha, today said the Prime Minister could have removed him from the post had he taken any wrong decision.
Rao also said that a final decision on any Coal Ministry related work was taken by cabinet ministers Shibu Soren and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who held the portfolios at different times.
Rao and Soren have been also accused by former Coal Secretary P C Parakh in his recent book on 'coalgate' for scuttling reforms in the coal ministry.
"His allegation is when he proposed the bidding (for coal blocks allocation), I refused it. So I have not cooperated with it. Who am I not to cooperate? After that I was a Minister of State. There is a minister. There is a cabinet minister. Sometimes Cabinet Minister Shibu Soren is there. Sometimes Prime Minister is there," Rao said.
The former Rajya Sabha member said there were certain "practical problems" in introducing new things in the ministry.
"Whenever he wanted some new things to be introduced, there were certain problems, practical problems. So I had to point out those problems. I put it to the Prime Minister or to the Cabinet Minister. So if these problems were not right problems then immediately the minister could have taken a decision.
"Suppose if I am wrong, the Prime Minister could have throw me away. Why he did not do it?," he asked.
He said there are agencies who can question any decision made by him or the Prime Minister with regard to coal ministry.
"Prime Minister's decision is final decision as per the government's order. If somebody wants to question it, there are the organisations or agencies.
"They have to take decision whether we have discussed these (practical problems on implementing Parakh's decision) things with the higher ups or not. Prime Minister is the final authority (for any decision)," said Rao.
