-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...

-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...

-The Hindu The parliamentary stalemate continues on one of the greatest corruption scandals in Indian history. Allocation of natural resources has been a subject matter of public debate in the last two decades, particularly with the entry of the private sector in infrastructure development. Minerals are an important natural resource. The private sector has a great role to play in development of mineral-based industries. However, the policy of allocation of these...

-PTI The government has decided to put on hold allocation of mines having minerals other than coal in view of the Mines and Minerals Bill pending before Parliament. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) sent a directive in this regard to the Mines Ministry about two months back, sources said here today. The Mines Ministry was advised that since the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Bill 2011 had not been passed by Parliament...

-The Indian Express While the BJP disrupted the functioning of Parliament for the second consecutive day on Wednesday demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation for alleged failure to go for auctioning of coal blocks, at least four states that were ruled by the Opposition at the time had raised the red flag when the Centre proposed the competitive bidding route in 2005. The Centre had cited the lack of “transparency and objectivity”...