| Title |
INDIAN COAL
ALLOCATION SCAM |
|
Background |
1973: Government of India
took charge of coal mining.
1976: Government allowed Private steel companies to own coal
mines.
1993: Power companies were allowed to own captive mines.
1993-2005: 41 private and 29 government companies got the
licence.
2004: UPA govt decided to allot more captive mines to private
and state-owned players after realizing that Coal India wouldn’t
be able to produce enough to meet the growing demand.
2006-2009: Licences for 75 blocks were distributed to private
companies and other 70 to Government. |
|
Description |
- Jul 25, 2005: A meeting was convened in the PMO on
this day, which was attended by representatives of coal and
lignite bearing states. In the meeting, the representatives
of state governments were opposed to the proposed switch
over to competitive bidding. it was decided in this meeting
to continue with the allocation of coal blocks through the
extant Screening Committee procedure till the new
competitive bidding procedure became operational.
- Jun 17, 2009: The coal block in Dahegaon- Makardhokra
IV, Maharashtra was allocated on this day to IST Steel and
Power, owned by Mayur and Gaurav Gupta, sons of former Union
corporate affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta (a member of RJD
and former Corporate Affairs Minister).
- May 29, 2012: On this day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
offered to give up his public life if found guilty in this
scam.
- May 31, 2012: On this day, the Central Vigilance
Commission (CVC) based on a complaint of two BJP MPs,
Prakash Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir, directed a CBI enquiry.
Income Tax Department also started an enquiry based on the
reference by the two BJP MPs.
- Aug 17, 2012: On this day, the CAG submitted its Final
Report to Parliament. It made the following charges against
the government: (i) The Government had the authority to
auction the coal blocks but chose not to and (ii) as a
result allocatees received a "windfall gain" from the
program.
- Aug 26, 2012: There were leaks of the report in media in
March 2012 which claimed the figure to be around ₹10,600
billion (US$160 billion). It was called by the media as the
Mother of all Scams. Discussion about the issue was placed
in the Parliament on this day by the prime minister Manmohan
Singh with wide protests from the opposition.
- Aug 27, 2012: On this day Indian prime minister Manmohan
Singh read a statement in Parliament rebutting the CAG's
report both in its reading of the law and the alleged cost
of the government's policies.
- Sep 15, 2012: On this day, an Inter
Ministerial Group (IMG) headed by Zohra Chatterji
(Additional Secretary in Coal Ministry) recommended
cancellation of a block allotted to SKS Ispat and Power and
a few more.
- The Government had the authority to
allocate coal blocks by a process of competitive bidding,
but chose not to. As a result, allocatees paid less than
they might have otherwise.
- In its draft report in March
the CAG estimated that the "windfall gain" to the allocatees
was ₹10,673 billion (US$160 billion).
- The CBI has named a dozen
Indian firms in a First Information Report (FIR), the first
step in a criminal investigation. These FIRs accuse them of
overstating their net worth, failing to disclose prior coal
allocations, and hoarding rather than developing coal
allocations.
- The issue received massive
media reaction and public outrage.
- In 2015, Coal auction helped
state government earned 80,000 Crore after sales of 11 coal
blocks.
- Sep 26, 2012: As up to this day, the Inter- Ministerial
Group (IMG) had reviewed 31 coal blocks. Out of these, it
had recommended de- allocation of 13 coal blocks and
encashment of bank guarantees of 14 allottees.
- Mar 13, 2013: On this day, the Supreme Court bench asked
the CBI director not to share details of coal block scam
investigations with political executives and report only to
the court.
- Apr 13, 2013: On this day, Activist lawyer Prashant
Bhushan, sought creation of a special investigation team to
probe the case as it involved very powerful personalities in
the present government who were either in charge of the
allocation process or who influenced the process to get
allocation to their favoured entities.
- Apr 19, 2013: On this day, BJP demanded the resignation
of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that he was using
the law ministry to save himself from the probe.
- Apr 23, 2013: Standing Committee on Coal and Steel
tabled in Parliament on 23 April 2013 stated in its latest
report that all coal blocks distributed between 1993 and
2008 were done in an unauthorized manner and allotment of
all mines where production is yet to start should be
cancelled.
- Jun 11, 2013: On this day, CBI booked former Minister of
State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and Congress MP Naveen
Jindal for alleged cheating, graft and criminal misconduct
in its 12th FIR in the coal blocks allocation scam.
- Sep 24, 2014: The Supreme Court on this day cancelled 214
of the 218 coal blocks allocated by successive governments
since 1993. Apart from the cancellation,
operational mines will have to pay a penalty of Rs.
295 for every tonne of coal extracted since they started. In a landmark verdict, the apex court had said that
licences to the blocks were illegal and a transparent
process for their bids was not followed. Last month, the Supreme Court said the licences
were illegal since they were allocated in an "arbitrary"
manner.
- Mar 11, 2015: On this day, Special CBI judge took
cognizance of the offence under various Sections against Dr.
Manmohan Singh and five other accused namely M/s. HINDALCO,
Subendhu Amitabh, D. Bhattacharya, Kumar Mangalam Birla,
P.C. Parakh.
- Apr 01, 2015: On this day, the Supreme Court granted an
interim stay against the order of CBI special court and
stayed further proceedings against Dr. Manmohan Singh and
others before the special CBI Court.
|
|
<> PROFILE
<> CROSSWORD <> QUIZ
<> VIDEOS <>