The compliance audit report on e-auction of coal blocks by the Com-ptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) has the potential to turn into a political slugfest in the monsoon session of Parliament, which
The compliance audit report on e-auction of coal blocks by the Com-ptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) has the potential to turn into a political slugfest in the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins on Monday.
This audit report covered coal block allocations from May 2015 onwards, the period which the Narendra Modi-led NDA government decided to allocate coalmines through the e-auction route to ensure transparency. The coal ministry-which must be given a final copy of the report in order to justify its stand, received the CAG report on June 22, 2016.
According to informed sources, the CAG audit, among other issues, was primarily aimed at finding out whether the principle of fair practices was adhered to and whether cartelisation and price-rigging had taken place.
The national auditor has already scrutinised the procedures as well as the relevant documents in the allocation of coal blocks through the e-auction route. The NDA government had claimed that '2 lakh crore was added to the public exchequer by allocating just 34 coalfields through the e-auction route.
The history of coal block allocations has been a contentious issue in India in recent times. It was the CAG’s report in 2012 that had first found that private corporates had made windfall gains to the tune of about '1.86 lakh crore by adopting illegal means and blatantly violating laid down norms. A subsequent investigation by the CBI had resulted in cancellation of the allocations.
The 2012 CAG report spiraled into a big political storm as the coal blocks were allotted during a five-year period from 2004 to 2009 when the Congress-led UPA was in power, something that the Opposition took up very strongly to corner the Congress. Besides the financial aspects from the point of view of audit, environmental issues in the coalmine allocations are also a matter of concern. In a recent report, environmentalist NGO Greenpeace, after assessing official documents acquired through RTI, had concluded that “417 of 825 current and future coal blocks fall within areas that ought to be categorized as “inviolate” under hydrological parameters.” The CAG is ready with 15 reports for this Parliament session including three from the defence services and two from the railways.
