Jaiswal admits to missing files on coal block allocations

The Supreme Court,which had directed the ministry on August 6 to extend full cooperation to the CBI in its probe is set to hear the issue again on August 29.

Further,other than the files,recommendations made by Congress MP Vijay Darda forwarded by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for the Bander block have gone missing.

The issue of missing files has turned into a tug-of-war between the CBI and the ministry. While the coal ministry has written to the CBI director Ranjit Sinha last month saying it has already provided 762 files and would provide more as and when requisitioned,the CBI says the required files are yet to be handed over to it.

But ministry sources say that some of these files “exclude pre-2004 period.” 

Among the missing files reportedly include,the recommendations made by Congress MP Vijay Darda and forwarded by the PMO for the Bander block in Maharashtra.

The missing files contain some of the recommendations made to the screening committees. The committees were responsible for the final allocation of coal mines.

The files were received from the ministries of steel and power to the coal ministry with their suggestions for allocations based on recommendations sent up from the state governments.

The CBI has already told the apex court there was no uniformity or rationale in the allocation of coal blocks and indicated that the screening committees,which vetted allocation of blocks on the recommendations of respective states,maintained no minutes of deliberations on scrutiny of applications. The agency had also said that coal blocks were allocated prima facie,in an arbitrary manner.

Jaiswal’s Congress party colleague and former law minister Ashwani Kumar had to resign in the wake of revelations that he had vetted the draft probe report of the CBI.

Probe stalled

* Jaiswal’s admission would bolster the CBI’s contention that it has not been getting adequate information from the coal ministry in its probe into irregularities in allocations

* Recommendations made by Congress MP Vijay Darda for the Bander block in Maharashtra have also gone missing

* Additional files requisitioned by the CBI from the coal ministry are yet to be handed over to the agency