Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Saturday, August 24, 2013.
The coal
ministry, whose coal block allocations from 1993 to 2009 are being probed for
alleged irregularities by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), maintains
it has no data on the number of applications received by it for allocations
during 1993 to 2004.
In his reply
given to a query under the Right To Information (RTI) act, on February 28, the
ministry's director (appellate authority) PSS Reddy said, "Allocations
made from 1993 to 2004 were based on the identification done by the prospective
allocates. Hence, no data was maintained on the number of applications received
during the said period."
However, the
ministry's own records say otherwise: In the July 16 meeting of the ministry's
high-level committee, which was set up to review and examine the issue of
missing files, when the question of "copies of all applications received
for 45 coal blocks allocated from 1993-2005" being sought by the CBI was
raised it held that "director (administration), ministry of coal, has been
requested on May 9, 2013, to trace the records. The same may be
expedited." Advocacy group Greenpeace India's researcher Sunil Dahiya had
sought the information via RTI.
Reddy also
said in his reply, "files, documents along with annexure, in
original," pertaining to 1,422 applications received for 38 coal
blocks" after an advertisement was issued in 2006 "are in the
custody" of the CBI. However, according to a source, among the records the
agency is still awaiting from the ministry include 19 applications, including
157 applications of private companies.
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