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Mafia within coal ministry, Parakh said in 2005

Former coal secretary P C Parakh, now booked by CBI in the Coalgate scam, was locked in a bitter feud with his minister Shibu Soren in 2005, during which the IAS officer said the coal mafia was actually within the coal ministry.

Two separate letters, one written by Soren to the prime minister and the other by Parakh to the cabinet secretary in 2005, highlight the tension between the two over allocation and auction of blocks as well as postings in Coal India Ltd.

On February 7, 2005, Soren wrote to the PM seeking Parakh's removal on grounds of procedural lapses, "gross insubordination" and "hiding information on the coal mafia".

"I have to reluctantly take a view that it may not be appropriate to continue any further with the present secretary (coal). I, hence, request the prime minister to finally consider to substitute the present incumbent with a suitable alternative," Soren wrote.

Parakh retaliated with a March 22, 2005 letter to the cabinet secretary. " ...minister (Soren) perhaps has far more knowledge about the operations and strength of the coal mafia as he comes from a state where the stranglehold of coal mafia is the strongest," he said.

Parakh rubbed in his point by saying, "The coal mafia is not outside the government. It exists within the ministry of coal, coal companies, trade unions, state administrations and local political leadership. There are no easy solutions to the problem ... in the current political and administrative milieu... Dealing with the coal mafia requires strong political commitment at central and state government level and ability to effectively enforce law and order, which does not exist."

Soren had accused Parakh of failing to give information on action taken against the coal mafia and of an "deliberate attempt" to hide information from him. Parakh retorted by saying he did not offer any solution to the coal mafia problem to the minister apart from bringing about structural changes in operations of the coal ministry for which ministers have shown great reluctance.

Soren, who held charge of the ministry between 2004 and 2006, accused Parakh of being an "NDA man" who was bypassing ministers and "not listening to the political leadership". "My secretary (coal) has a style of functioning that has no blend of procedure, harmony and respect for political leadership. To his convinces, he flounders (sic) rules of business executive working with the intention of bypassing the ministers," Soren said.

While giving instances of alleged procedural failure and insubordination on Parakh's part, Soren said, "There was a lot of discussion about the motives of the secretary in the coal trade. Immediately on my taking over as the minister of coal, MPs requested me to investigate. I received written comp-laints from them too."

Parakh hit back, "As regards complaints from members of Parliament, lesser said the better. I had heard that signatures of MPs can be obtained for a price on any piece of paper." Parakh gave examples of complaints against him by a few MPs, calling them baseless.

He further added, "I am sorry to say that members of Parliament who swear to uphold the Constitution can with impunity indulge in black-mailing civil servants and senior executives of public sector companies to meet their personal ends."

Soren also accused Parakh of misleading him regarding captive bidding of coal blocks. "With regard to mechanism of allocating captive coal blocks, while the entire range of industry, including their administrative ministries, was opposed to captive bidding for various reasons, the secretary (coal) preferred to mislead as if the industry was in favour of it."

To this, Parakh replied that there were opinions in favour and against competitive bidding. "However, there can be no doubt that such a system will be far more transparent than any system that is based on subjective considerations. With both minister of state and minister of coal (Soren) were strongly opposed to the idea, prime minister as minister (coal) had approved the proposal".

Source: The Times of India