Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: The seven-member Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament headed by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Bhartuhari Mahatab today appeared to go soft on the Odisha government while accusing the Centre of irregularities in the allotment of coal blocks.
Mahatab, convenor of the committee, also rapped the Centre for its alleged arbitrariness in the matter reflected in allotments being made in favour of too many companies which defeated the very purpose of the exercise.
“The Centre has adopted an arbitrary attitude in coal block allocation. While the Odisha government recommended name of a single company for one coal block, the Centre allotted the same block to three more companies, thus delaying the development of the particular block,” said the MP from Cuttack.
Mahatab, who along with his colleagues, interacted with officials of both the state government and Mahanadi Coal Field Limited, a central government undertaking operating in Odisha, said that the panel chose to visit the state first because it is the only one among the country’s coal-bearing states to have put its mining policy in public domain.
“The state government has explained its position and we are satisfied,” the leader said.
The PAC visit, coming in the wake of an opposition furore over state government’s recommendations for allotment of coal blocks in favour of private companies without even entering into MoUs with them, had raised expectations of the committee turning the heat on state officials.
But nothing of the kind seems to have happened with the panel members more interested in finding out whether the state government was taken into confidence by the Centre while making allocations of coal blocks in Odisha. The committee also sought to know whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had responded to the letters written to him on the issue by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
The committee, however, sought information about alleged irregularities in the state-run Orissa Mining Corporation’s joint venture with the Delhi-based Sainik Mining and Allied Services Limited. The deal was cancelled by the government last month.
Mahatab, however, refused to go into the details of the case. “All alleged irregularities in coal block allocations are part of our audit,” he said.
