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Before SC, Centre admits to flaws in coal allocation New Delhi, January 9 “In hindsight, we can say something has gone wrong and some correction is required,” Attorney General GE Vahanvati told the three-member Bench headed by Justice RM Lodha that is hearing a batch of PILs seeking cancellation of the coal block allocations in view of irregularities in the exercise. The AG, however, said the government had done the allocations in good faith but now realised that these
could have been carried out in a “far better manner”. “Everything could have been done in a more refined and better manner,” Vahanvati said while agreeing with similar sentiments expressed by the Bench, which included Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph. As the Bench sought the Centre’s stand on the plea for de-allocation of the blocks, AG said this was being finalised and would be conveyed to the court in a week. The apex court said there should not be any problem in de-allocating the blocks as the Centre had clarified that the letters of intent issued by it to the companies did not confer any right on them to exploit the natural resources. Nor the investments made by the companies in their respective projects would come in the way of reviewing the allotments. The Bench made the remarks while hearing the contentions of the Centre and the seven states on the alleged flouting of rules in the allocations. The states are West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Maharashtra. In September 2013, the SC had enlarged the scope of the PILs and asked these states to explain their role in the allocations to private as well as state-owned companies. The PIL petitioners sought quashing of the allotment of 194 coal blocks by the Centre to private companies during 2004-11 “in a pick and choose manner” thereby causing a “huge loss” to the country. Among the petitioners are former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian, NGO Common Cause, former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, ex-Union Secretaries Ramaswamy Iyer and Sushil Tripathi and Admirals (retd) RH Tahiliani and L Ramdas, who has been the Navy Chief. PM must quit: BJP The BJP on Thursday demanded PM Manmohan Singh's resignation and asked the government to scrap the coal block allocations. "The Attorney General has accepted that something major was wrong in the coal block allocations. The onus is now on the PM as he had held the coal portfolio from 2006 to 2009," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. Gift of hindsight
In hindsight, we can say something has gone wrong and some correction is
required. GE Vahanvati, attorney general ‘Could’ve done better’
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