Thaindian News

Agartala, Sep 13 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Finance (EB&I;) Namo Narain Meena Thursday claimed that there could be a nexus between the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), India’s official auditor, and the opposition parties on the coal blocks allocation report.

The CAG in a recent report said that private players had windfall gains worth Rs.1.85 lakh crore in the 142 coal blocks allocated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during 2006-09.

“We are not ruling out a nexus between the CAG and opposition parties on the former’s report about the coal blocks allocation,” Meena told reporters here.

The minister of state for finance also addressed a public meeting here Wednesday as part of the UPA’s nation-wide campaign to counter the “misleading campaign by the opposition parties, especially the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) on the illegal coal block allocation”, he said.

“The BJP did not want discussion on the issue in parliament. That’s why they disrupted the proceedings for 13 days… They knew that discussion would expose the illegal involvement of their chief ministers and party leaders in the coal blocks allocation,” Meena said.

He added that the UPA government was “not afraid to discuss the coal blocks allocation”, while the BJP was petrified to do the same.

The minister also distributed copies of letters, related to coal allocation, of chief ministers of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, former chief minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje, chief secretary of former Left Front government in West Bengal and chief secretary of Chhattisgarh.

The BJP did not allow parliament to function during the just-concluded monsoon session demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation and cancellation of the allocated coal blocks.