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BJP demands SIT probe in coal blocks allocation
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SME Times News Bureau | 13 Apr, 2013
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday demanded that a Special
Investigation Team (SIT) probe alleged irregularities in the allocation
of coal blocks, saying the UPA would not allow the CBI to function
independently.
Reacting to a report in a national daily that
claimed that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government "vetted"
the coal blocks allocations probe status report before it was submitted
to the Supreme Court, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said this was a "very
serious matter".
"This is evidence of the government's pressure on CBI to save the prime minister," Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter.
The
news report said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe
report, submitted last month, had been vetted by Law Minister Ashwani
Kumar and officials of the Prime Minister's Office.
It further
said that senior CBI officials, including Director Ranjit Sinha, were
summoned by Kumar days before the status report was filed.
During
the meeting with Kumar, several amendments in the status report were
suggested and some also incorporated by the CBI, the newspaper report
held.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley told reporters the newspaper
report showed that the government would not allow the CBI to carry out
its work with honesty.
"CBI's image of an independent agency is
now completely demolished and dismantled. CBI cannot go to the root of
the matter and find the truth, and even if some honest officer tries to
find the truth, the UPA is a rogue government which will not allow it to
act independently," he said.
"Therefore the system will have to
seriously consider whether an SIT must take over the administration and
investigation of coal scam," he said.
Jaitley said the search for
truth has now been interfered with, and this was being done at the
level of minister and Prime Minister's Office (PMO) officials, raising
serious questions.
"The UPA is interested in diluting the guilt
of culprits. What dilutions are to be made in the report -- that was the
agenda of this meeting," he said.
The BJP leader said interference in CBI's work has been prohibited by an apex court ruling.
"In
a case related to autonomy and independence of CBI, the Supreme Court
categorically had said, quoting from an English principle, that no
minister of government can interfere and tell the CBI what to do and
what not to do and that is now completely violated," Jaitley said.
"The
coal scam clearly shows that allocation of coal was tainted, and it was
a case of nepotism. The power plants of the country are starved of coal
and favourites of this government were allocated coal mines, and actual
mining has not begun," he said.
Jaitley said that instead of
restoring natural assets back, this government wants to dilute its own
guilt, and that of those to whom allotments were made, by interfering in
a due process of law.
"The government owes an explanation.
Persons named in the report should publicly speak whether this is true
or otherwise. The original unaltered report of the CBI must be made
public and also placed before the SC," he said.
India's official
auditor had last year revealed that the lack of transparency in the
allocation of coal blocks to private players resulted in the loss of a
whopping Rs.1.85 lakh crore($37 billion) to the exchequer as on March
11, 2011.
The audit report does not directly indict the prime
minister or his office. But during the time these mining blocks were
allotted, the coal portfolio was held by Manmohan Singh (between July
2004 and May 2009).
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