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The Indian coal allocation scam more popularly known through the media as Coalgate is one of the major controversy in the year 2012 which led to the consequence of extensive torment among not only the people but also among the anti-corruption protesters. These people have publicly demonstrated opposition against the ruling party and also the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Manmohan Singh and his set of Cabinet Ministers. The anti corruption activist group led by Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare as a matter of expressing a protest against the coal allocation scam headed a march towards the residences of the Prime Minister and other members of the Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party in 2012. It was a very intense march where the police had to gear up themselves from preventing these people entering the residences of the concerned person by using tear gas and water cannons.


The Coal allocation scam is supposed to be the biggest scam over the last decade. This scandal clearly reflects the political public disagreement and heated discussion showing up the lack of symmetry and irregularities in the features of the country in the case of handling national coal deposits. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had put forth lot of allegations against the then current ruling Congress Party which have done uneven distribution or allocation of the coal deposits among the public precinct establishment and organizations and also many private institutions during the period of 2004 to 2009. The total amount which is a loss in case of the Indian coal allocation scam is worth Rs. 1,067,303 crores.

In fact the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh was charged by the CAG, the Comptroller and the Auditor General of India for being a part of the scandal and persistently urged him to quit from his posting. The coal allocation scam had led to a situation where literally both the ruling and the opposition party could further make no progress just remaining stand off from the parliament sessions in just having only seven sitting of the assembly for the month of August in 2012 where it usually used to be around twenty sessions. Advocate M. L. Sharma had filed a litigation based on Public interest stating to cancel the allocation of all the 194 coal blocks on grounds of unlawfulness by virtue of violating some legal statute and not consistent with our Indian constitution. This resulted in a major commotion. As a result of this legal dispute the Supreme Court of India, in its September 2012 hearing has commanded the ruling Government which is in its power namely the Congress party to give clear explanations for following the rules of 2004 policy of competitive bidding for coal block allocation.

The roots of corruption in India are getting deeper and deeper like one of the biggest scandal of coal allocation. The ever strongest opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had clearly expressed there was need for the ruling party to allocate as many as 142 coal blocks without bidding to private entrepreneur's, most of whom were not even actual users and traders. But however for all these alleged complaints the Congress party members and the thenPrime Minister, Manmohan Singh have said that all these complaints are not true and the Government of India will look into the matter with deepest concerned.

The Indian coal allocation scam is more like the great 2G scam. A senior Minister formulating or following a policy that resulted in three unfortunate and unwarranted implications: a massive loss to the exchequer; a windfall gain to private entities; and the plundering of a national resource. There are so many factors parallel to the former Telecom Minister A. Raja and the former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The integrity of Dr. Manmohan Singh was put to question because of the coal allocation scam which has tossed complicated defamation of his character especially on his honesty. The report submitted by the Comptroller and the Auditor General was very much enough to convince the public that there was something more contrary to the ordinary course of nature than only unfamiliar in concern to the allocation of the coal blocks to private entities. The additional matter which adds up to fire is that all these events took place during the period when Dr. Manmohan Singh held additional charge of the Coal Ministry from November 2006 to May 2009.

Over the past few years the average allotment of coal block was only 3-4 every year but during the period of in charge of Dr.Manmohan Singh there was an abnormal increase of allotment of as many as 22-24 during 2006-09. All the allotments were made without protecting the interest of the public exchequer, and without following any competitive process. So according to the CAG report the loss because of the coal allocation scam is about Rs.1, 86,000 which has no transparency at all. However the Comptroller and the Auditor General narrowed down to a subjected loss based on the average cost of production and sale price of open cast mines of Coal India during 2010-2011. There is also suspicion on the fact for holding up a conclusion on competitive bidding which is under Regulation and Development Act 1957 which could have been implemented way back in 2006.

It is very clear from various other issues that the competitive bidding was active even right from 2006- 2009, for nearly 2 years period then later it was dropped though the Development of legal Affairs and law secretary of the time stood against the decision. A complex situation resulted in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha for four continuous days because of the coal allocation scam. Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj from Bharthya Janta party were stern on the fact that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take the moral responsibility and resign from his posting because he was in charge of the coal department during the period of the occurrence of the illegal coal allocation. As already mentioned there was a litigation filed by an advocate on grounds of Public interest and also the Inter-minister group strongly suggested for the deallocation of the 4 coal block. But however this was strongly objected by the then Union Coal Minister Saipradad Jaiswal along with UPA leaders and condemned the report of Comptroller and Auditor General.

It was stated by the Union coal minister that the policy on the basis of which the coal allocation was done is not faulty and he also said that the report submitted by the CAG is only based on few viewpoints of the coal allocation. Also the Prime Minister on addressing to the report submitted by the CAG told them to direct the issue to Parliament than to discuss with the Public Account committee.The report was submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on accusing the Government for allocation of coal blocks in an illegal manner during the period of 2004- 2009. The conclusion made by the CAG on the Government's resolution on not to bid 194 coal blocks during the period of 2004- 2011 states that the country lost a huge amount in revenue. Earlier it was estimated that the amount of the scam was about Rs10 lakh crores but however the CAG decided not to consider the Public sector units in its final report and kept them away.

The Supreme court in its order dtd.26/08/2014 has cancelled all mining licence issued after 1993 due to irregularity and lack of transperance in allotment.

Disclaimer: This web page explains the scams that occurred in India. The information are collected from the media reports. www.indianmirror.com or it owners do not take any responsibility for the authenticity of the contents. Since some cases are in the court of law, we do not endorse any cases or do not conclude on the same. If you need any changes to be done on the above information, kindly contact us with valid proof. However sincere attempt is being made to create awareness in the society against this evil and to prepare the younger generation for a corruption free India.