Bhubaneswar, Aug. 24: The Odisha Opposition today sought to up the ante with accusations of doublespeak against chief minister Naveen Patnaik even as the Odisha government went into damage control mode on the issue of coal block allotment.

Naveen’s chief tormentor, Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena asked why the state government, which has now said it is in favour of competitive bidding for the allotment of coal blocks, was not making a move for the open auction of bauxite mines in the Niyamgiri hills that big corporate houses, including the Vedanta group, were eyeing.

Steel and mines minister Rajanikant Singh made a feeble attempt to rise to the defence of the state government over allegations that in 2002, the chief minister had written to the then Union minister for coal and mines for the allotment of a coal block in the Talcher coal fields in favour of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

“What’s wrong in recommending names of a company for a coal block? The government of India has a mechanism to scrutinise all the recommendations,” said Singh, adding that if the government did not take the initiative of recommending names, corporate houses would stop coming to Odisha for setting up industries.

Jena today added a new dimension to the controversy by questioning the state government’s unwillingness to go for open auction of the Niyamgiri bauxite mines. “If the state government goes for open auction of these mines, the state would get nearly Rs 8 lakh to 10 lakh crore as revenue. Instead of doing this, it had made a move to hand it over to Vedanta Alumina Limited at a throwaway price,” said the minister.