Prime Minister Should Reply on Coal Scam Charges: CPI

CPI today demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reply to charges of irregularities in allocation of coal blocks instead of evading an answer over the issue.

"The CAG report submitted to Parliament says that the losses incurred by government due to the allocation of coal blocks to private companies is higher than even the 2G scam. The CAG said the coal blocks were alloted when the portfolio was held by the PMO.

"The Prime Minister asserts he is clean but his responsibility would not go by saying so. He should reply what is his responsibility and that of the PMO," CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters here.

"The Prime Minister is trying to evade a reply by saying that he is clean and that his integrity cannot be questioned. PMO had a role in the matter and we demand that he take responsibility for it," he said.

Training his guns on Prime Minister, Reddy wondered why Manmohan Singh remained silent when CPI sought cancellation of licences in the 2G issue in 2008.

"The probe (into 2G scam) was held only after the Supreme Court intervened. What was his responsibility in this," he said.



"How can Singh claim to be clean when 22 MPs were purchased to save his government during the no-confidence motion moved after the Left parties withdrew their support to UPA-I over the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, the CPI general secretary alleged.

"He can prove his integrity by explaining the PMO's role in coal gate and also the role of his party in purchasing the MPs," he said.

On the petrol price hike, the CPI leader demanded that the Centre and also states should reduce the taxes imposed by them on petroleum products to alleviate the burden on common man.



Slamming Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy for his reported comments that all parties indulged in populist measures, he said it is meaningless to describe the demand for reducing the "abnormally high taxes imposed by the government" as populism.

The CPI general secretary demanded that a white paper be released on the benefits accrued to private companies due to the hike in petro prices.

"How can Reliance company be allowed to export some of its petroleum products at a time when petrol is being imported for domestic consumption," he said.

Alleging that the PMO has urged the Petroleum Ministry to reconsider its decision to disallow Reliance to hike the prices of its petro products from the KG basin, Reddy charged that it is only an attempt to benefit a private company.



Objecting to the subsidies given to corporate companies to the tune of over Rs five lakh crore in the 2012 Union Budget, he said such proposals should be scrapped to help the country tide over the present economic crisis.

A special Parliament session should be convened for the purpose, he said.

Finding fault with the white paper released by the Centre on black money, he said "it was only an attempt to white wash" as it did not give information over who are the depositors and the promise of confiscating their ill-gotten wealth.

The names of all depositors in the Swiss banks be revealed to establish the innocence of late Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors issue, Reddy said.

CPI and other Left parties would conduct a nationwide campaign from July 1-30 in support of its demand for tabling the Food Security Bill in the next session of Parliament after consulting all parties, Reddy said.

Demanding that the criteria for determining poverty line be redefined in a rational manner, CPI and Left parties would organise "collective sit-in" from July 30 to August three in Delhi, he added.

Replying to a query on Presidential election, he said the party favoured electing a political, secular and honest person with "wide possible acceptability" as Rashtrapati.