Coal scam: “No undue haste in awarding coal block to Birla”,Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told CBI that he did not try to “influence” anybody, nor was there “any undue haste” in awarding the Talabira-II coal block to HINDALCO which was initially refused.

He also told CBI, investigating the case, that he had neither promised, nor gave any assurance to industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla about allocation of the block in Odisha to his firm HINDALCO.

Singh, who was holding the portfolio of the Coal Ministry in 2005, said he only forwarded the letters of Birla and Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik in this regard to the Ministry for careful examination.

Singh, who has been summoned as accused by a special CBI court in the case, in a statement to the agency has said that recommendation of the Ministry to accommodate HINDALCO was approved by him.

There was no “undue haste” in arriving at the decision to allocate the block to HINDALCO, he maintained.

The Supreme Court had on April 1 stayed the trial court’s order summoning Singh and others, including Birla and ex-Coal Secretary P C Parakh, as accused in the case.

In his statement recorded before CBI, which is probing the alleged scam in allotting a coal block to HINDALCO, Singh said he had received a May 7, 2005, letter from Birla urging the government to allocate Talabira-II block to his firm as it would enable them to set up a large aluminium plant in Odisha.

As per the 25th screening committee, the case of number of companies, including HINDALCO, was not considered favourable and it had decided to allocate the Talabira-II coal block to Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC).

Singh also told CBI that Birla had written two letters in support of his request which he had asked the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to send to the Coal Ministry for a report.

Regarding Birla’s letter, Singh said the industrialist had mentioned about aluminium project in Odisha and emphasised on the need for Talabira-II coal block to set up a globally competitive aluminium smelter which had employment and revenue generation potential in the state.

Singh also said that a letter was received from the Chief Minister of Odisha in this regard and it was sent to the Ministry of Coal with a request to take it on record, re- examine the matter and re-submit the file.

The former Prime Minister has also said that he had “many other issues to worry” about being at the helm of the government and it was practically not possible for him to know and recollect every guideline on coal-block allocation.

The special court had summoned Singh, Birla, Parakh and others as accused in the case while refusing to accept CBI’s closure report filed in the case.

They have all denied any wrongdoing in the case.

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Source:Zeenews

Manmohan Singh