BJP top leaders should resign for misleading the country- Palam Raju

Imphal, Sep 17 (Universal News Agency): “Instead of demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation, the top BJP leaders should resign for misleading the country” said Palam Raju, Union Ministry of State for Defence here in Imphal, Monday.

Union Ministry of State for Defence
Palam Raju(L) addressing to media.

The Union Ministry of State for Defence, Palam Raju who visited the state for clarifying the current issue related to allocation of Coal blocks from a report of the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) which was tabled in the just concluded monsoon session of Parliament was speaking to the media person in a press meet at Congress Bhavan this afternoon.

Because of this coal blocks case the BJP has stalled the functioning of Parliament due to which 13 days were lost of the monsoon session, in demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and also subsequently insisting on the cancellation of the coal blocks.

Parliament is the appropriate forum for debate and discussion of such vital issues but the BJP continued to disrupt the proceedings of the Parliament and have now taken to the streets added Palam Raju.

The BJP allegation of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore misused by the congress government is just a notion lost.
The policy of allocation of coal blocks to private parties, which the CAG has criticised, was not a new policy introduced by the UPA. The Policy has existed since 1993 and previous governments also allocated coal blocks in precisely the manner that CAG has now criticised.

In fact between 1998 and 2004, when the NDA was in power, captive coal blocks were allotted to 16 private sector companies and 16 blocks to Government sector companies without any transparent procedure, alleged MoS for Defence.

Why hasn’t the CAG audited the period before 2004 when the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was at the helms of affairs. In fact the UPA Government has followed the coal block allocation policy with improvements like the setting up of a screening committee.

Due to the BJP stalling the Parliament proceedings a wrong message is sent to the rest of the world regarding political uncertainty and ultimately the nation’s economic growth and the Gross National Product (GDP) and inflow of investments come down in the country, Palam Raju added.

The BJP is stalling the Parliament proceedings as it is aware that the Government is in possession of letters written to it by the Chief Ministers of BJP and non-congress ruled states opposing “bidding of the coal blocks”.

BJP has accused the Congress of blaming the CAG, but forget what they have said about the CAG in the past. Shourie called the CAG “idiotic” on the issue of disinvestment of Centaur Hotel and Arun Jaitley has also said that the CAG has acted on “hearsay and not on facts” with reference to the coffin scam added Palam Raju.

The Inter-Ministerial Group on Coal blocks allocation will submit its report to the Coal Ministry. If some private companies have used fraudulent documents or violated conditions or laid down criteria, necessary action will be taken, assured Union Minister of State for Defence.

The Union Minister of State for Defence was accompanied by Luizinho Faleiro, member Congress working Committee AICC and in charge of Manipur.

The Congress is sending its representative in every state through out the Nation for clarifying the issue of Coal blocks allocation.