UPA turns to an Orissa scam to take on NDA

As the UPA government braces to take on the Opposition over the coal block allocation issue,it has turned to the allotment of coal block Utkal B-1 in Orissa.

On June 22,2002,Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written to then Union minister of state,Coal & Mines,Ravi Shankar Prasad urging him to cancel the allotment of the said block to Talcher Mining Pvt Ltd and allocate it to Jindal Steel & Power Ltd,which was accordingly done in September 2003.

In the letter,Patnaik said the Jindals had proposed setting up a one million tonne per annum sponge and iron project at Deojhar in Keonjhar district and a 100 MW power plant at Talcher in Angul district with an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore in the first phase. To meet the captive requirement of their proposed plants,M/s Jindal Steel & Power Ltd have requested for allotment of Utkal B-1 coal block, wrote Naveen Patnaik.

Story continues below this ad

He added that while the screening committee of the Coal Ministry had allotted the block to Talcher,due to the inordinate delay in implementation of the Tamil Nadu power project for which the allotment was made,a deadline of January 31,2002,had been set. The screening committee had stipulated that non-compliance would lead to automatic cancellation of the coal block allotted to Talcher,Patnaik wrote.

I would request your personal intervention… and to consider allotment of Utkal B-1 coal block in favour of M/s Jindal Steel & Power Ltd on cancelling the allotment to Talcher, Patnaik wrote.

A UPA minister said they have much more evidence to nail the Opposition.