HYDERABAD: Prakash Chandra Parakh the former union coal secretary said on Tues that if the CBI smelt a conspiracy in allocation of coal blocks, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ought to be an accused too since he signed off on the choice.
“At the instant, i’d solely wish to say that in its investigations, CBI is unable to form a distinction between valid selections taken publicly interest and wrong selections. If CBI has come back to conclusion that allocation of Talabira (coal blocks) to Hindalco was a conspiracy, then they must have created the Prime Minister, who approved the allocation, as defendant number 1,” said Parakh.
“It is strange that CBI ought to question my bonafides, I initiated many measures to bring transparency within the coal sector despite many odds.”
Parakh’s remarks came hours once he was named within the latest chargesheet filed by the CBI together with man of affairs Kumar Mangalam Birla and his company.
A geologist-turned IAS officer of the 1969 batch of the province cadre, who currently lives in Hyderabad, was delineated as the coalgate informant and also the inclusion of his name within the CBI chargesheet has stunned several following the scam closely.
He was appointed Union coal secretary in March 2004 and despite many makes an attempt by ministers within the UPA government to unseat him remained therein post until he retired in December 2005.
Although the Centre had determined to open the coal sector for discretionary allocations in 1993, it absolutely was only in might 2004, once the UPA government took over, that the allocations really happened in massive numbers. As coal secretary, Parakh headed a screening committee whose job was to hand over profitable coal blocks for mining to private corporations. per sources, the beneficiaries of such allocations were corporations that created political contributions to the Congress-led coalition.
Interestingly, whereas Shibhu Soren and Dasari Narayana Rao were the coal minister and minister of state severally once the UPA government took over in might 2004, at the time once Parakh affected the cupboard note seeking the scrapping of the selective allocations of coal blocks in favour of competitive bidding, Soren had to resign attributable to political reasons and it absolutely was Manmohan Singh who was in-charge of coal ministry.
According to sources, not only Soren, however many MPs tried to induce Parakh removed as coal secretary. under pressure, the officer opted for voluntary retirement however really retired on his official date of December 2005. a couple of months past, Parakh was of the read that the PM should have place his weight behind competitive bidding.