Coal news and updates

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers plan to press ahead full steam in the coal scam investigation cases after the Supreme Court said on Tuesday that investigators don’t require clearances to prosecute bureaucrats in court-monitored probes.

 

CBI has been wanting to question five Secretary-level rank officers in the Union government as well as in states where coal blocks were allocated. Earlier, a year-long scrutiny of 100 files pertaining to coal block allocation had indicated the role of several senior serving and retired bureaucrats. However, the agency has faced several delays and setbacks in obtaining approvals to even initiate the procedure involving bureaucrats and government officers in multiple cases. 

 

For instance, it had to wait for more than four months to get clearance from the government to interrogate former coal secretary HC Gupta, who was a member of the Competition Commission of India(CCI) until recently. Gupta was the coal secretary between 2006 and 2009, the period which is under the scanner for alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks. CBI claims that it was during this period that 68 coal blocks were allocated. This was the time when prime minister Manmohan Singh handled the coal portfolio.

 

“The apex court’s guidelines have removed the obstacles for us to reach the high and mighty,” a CBI officer told dna on condition of anonymity. “It is clear that majority irregularities were found at the screening committee level. And some senior officials, including -level officers, had cleared the names of some ineligible private companies. At present, we need to examine three-five secretary-level officers.”

 

In addition to secretary-level officers, the agency may also probe chief secretaries of some states, who had recommended the allocation of coal blocks to some private companies, even though the firms were not eligible to get the blocks. Also, in the coal blocks allocated to Birla group company, Hindalco, the agency had pointed fingers at officials in the prime minister’s office for clearing the allocation. 

 

 

 

Source: DNA