Stepping up pressure, BJP today demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation and asked the government to scrap the coal block allocations after the Centre admitted before the Supreme Court that something went wrong.
"The Attorney General has accepted that something major was wrong in the coal block allocations. He has confided in the Supreme Court that there were serious irregularities in the allotments.
"The onus is now on the Prime Minister as he had held the coal portfolio from 2006 to 2009 when the allocations were made. We reiterate that he should own up his responsibility and resign," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said that after the admission, there is yet another opportunity to correct the error ans scrap the allocations.
"If this opportunity is not availed, the country stands to suffer in terms of delay in power generation. The Prime Minister and the government continue to suffer from an image of indecisiveness and a taint of corruption," Jaitley said.
He said "the AG's admission in the SC that the coal block allocation could have been done in a better manner shows the PM failed to assert himself."
Jaitley added that if in 2006 and 2007 the PM as Coal Minister had followed his 2004 decision of the auction route, the coal scam would not have taken place.
Javadekar sought to question CBI's "silence" on action against two ministers of state who had held the coal portfolio and officials of PMO who dealt with the coal blocks allocations.
"We want to know why CBI is silent on the two ministers of state who held the coal portfolio during that time as well as the officials in the PMO," he said.
The BJP leader hoped the Supreme Court would give directions to probe the money trail and the beneficiaries of the scam to ensure justice is done.
