-Outlook Partha S. Bhattacharya, who was the chairman and managing director of Coal India Ltd (CIL) between 2006 and 2011, is credited with turning around the PSU. He spoke to Arindam Mukherjee on the heat and dust generated by the CAG report on allocation of coal blocks to private players. Excerpts: * Should the government allow the private sector into coal mining? There is plenty of coal for everyone. We are, at the...
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Karat favours coal mining through public sector
-The Hindu ‘Competitive bidding would favour private players, give rise to monopolies’ Even as the controversy over the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s (CAG) report on coal blocks allocation that reportedly caused a loss of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer rages, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said coal allocations and mining, in future, should be done through the public sector. In an article in party organ People’s Democracy, party general...
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-The Hindu “I seek the indulgence of the House… 3. …I want to assure Hon’ble Members that as the Minister in charge [for a part of the time covered by the report], I take full responsibility for the decisions of the Ministry. I wish to say that any allegations of impropriety are without basis and unsupported by the facts. 10. The observations of the CAG are clearly disputable. 11. The policy of allocation of...
More »CAG report flawed, disputable: PM -Vinay Kumar
-The Hindu "Charges of impropriety are unsupported by facts" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday attacked the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on the coal blocks allocation during 2004-09, saying any allegation of impropriety was without basis and unsupported by facts. As Parliament has been paralysed during the past week with an unrelenting and combative Bharatiya Janata Party disrupting proceedings in both Houses and demanding his resignation, Dr. Singh chose to make a statement...
More »Your law should not meddle with governance, Kapadia tells judges
-PTI Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia on Saturday said judges should not govern the country or evolve policies, and they should apply the enforceability test on some verdicts like making sleep a fundamental right. Doing some frank introspection on the judiciary’s functioning, he wondered what would happen if the executive refused to comply with its directives that might not be enforceable. “Right to life, we have said, includes environmental protection, right to...
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