Times of India reported that as the furor created by the disclosure of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the allocation of coal blocks refuses to die down with the opposition parties continuing to charge the UPA of being hand in glove with the allotees the Congress has decided reach out to the people to explain the real facts about the allocations.

Ms Daggubati Purandeswari minister of state for human resource said that much has been said about the CAG report on the coal mine which has been in the public domain and therefore, the Congress party thought it must reach out to the people as the opposition did not allow the Parliament to run.

She said that "From 1993 to 2005 coal blocks were given either to PSUs or private sectors following a particular methodology of allocation of coal mines. It was only in 2005 after the UPA came to power that it was decided to bring about a certain transparency in the allocation of coal blocks. Thus was born the open bidding system the brainchild of the UPA which it wanted to introduce."

Ms Purandeswari said that the consent of the state governments was required to bring in the bidding system that UPA desired therefore they reached out to those state governments where coal was found in large quantities. But the states largely ruled by the BJP like Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Oddisha, Madhya Pradesh, openly opposed the bidding system thus delaying the open bidding system as desired by the UPA government.

Source - Times of India

(www.coalguru.com)