11 firms given coal blocks sans screening, government tells SC
16 Jan 2014
The union government today admitted before the Supreme Court that 11 private companies were allocated coal blocks on a virtually ad hoc basis, without having to participate in any selection process.
The centre has provided to the court the list of 11 companies who were given captive coal blocks for the end use of power plants at a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in direct charge of the coal ministry.
Among these companies are Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Vedanta Resources' Balco, SKS Ispat and Power and Prakash Industries. The others are Green Infrastucture, Visa Power, Vandana Vdyut, GVK Gagan Sponge Iron and Lanco Group Ltd.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday had asked the Centre to explain why certain private firms were preferred over others, and on what criteria.
The court raised serious doubts about allocation of coal blocks by a screening committee in 2007-08, when the prime minister held charge of the coal ministry.
The apex court also questioned the manner in which players were added to the list of allottees without them being part of the short listing process.
In reply, attorney general G E Vahanvati told the court that the Centre will within 4-6 weeks order 61 private companies allocated coal blocks to clear deficiencies and obtain a mining lease or face de-allocation.
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