TheIndian EXPRESS

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NATIONAL NETWORK

l THURSDAY l APRIL 25 l 2013

Centre junks CBIs charge, says adhered to guidelines

UTKARSH ANAND
NEW DELHI, APRIL 24

DELHI
IAL T N E D I CONF
COMMON CAUSE
IN the last few days, both India and Japan have had difficult times with China. The incursion of Chinese soldiers inside the Indian territory has upset New Delhi, while China and Japan have been involved in a stand-off in the sea-waters near a disputed island. Incidentally, the past few days have also seen India and Japan warming up to each other. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is already slated to visit Japan sometime next month. Now, the foreign offices of the two countries are learnt to have finalised a visit to India by Japans Emperor sometime later this year.

HE Centre has strongly refuted the CBIs allegations in its report to the Supreme Court that no uniform policy or pattern was followed in allocating coal blocks to various entities and that several companies got blocks on misrepresentation. Submitting its affidavit in response to the courts query to explain the alleged lapses as pointed out by the CBIs inquiry report, the Ministry of Coal has denied that the screening committees three meetings in question, 34th, 35th, 36th, all held under the UPA-I regime, were tainted in any manner and that no consistent guidelines were followed.

COAL BLOCK
ALLOCATION
The ministry has said the decisions were taken in these meetings after appropriate deliberation and scrutiny of all the documents and other desired materials submitted by the applicants before the screening committee. It said the applications were processed after taking into account the recommendations by the respective state governments where mines and/or end-use plants were located and also those of the administrative ministries like Steel or Power, which were directly concerned with the mining leases. Moreover, net worth and financial strength

of the applicant company was assessed before allocating any block. The affidavit, which would be considered by a Bench led by Justice R M Lodha on April 30, said the screening committee suitably examined all the pertinent factors before according its nod for allocating a coal block to an applicant. The Bench had on the last date said that the allotments, prima facie, seem to be arbitrary and irrational and the procedures adopted did not appear to be proper and legal. Hearing PILs by lawyer M L Sharma and NGO Common Cause, the court had relied on the CBIs report and questioned the manner in which 1,950 applications for coal blocks were rejected while approving ap-

plications by 151 companies for 68 blocks between 2006 and 2009. Warning that the entire allotment could be scrapped if no parameters were adopted for allotment, the court said that it would not go into individual cases but would want to know if there was a well-defined and structured policy or not. It had wanted to know the sanctity of the screening committee and the source of power with the Centre to allot coal blocks when mineral was a state subject. Responding to this, the Ministry has stated that the screening committee was formed under a suitable legal regime of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act.

Seven more OPENING MOVES arrested for murder of DSP in UP

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
LUCKNOW, APRIL 24

SEEKING LEG SPACE

Cong promises farm loan, Re 1 rice, free laptops

DECIS ON 2013
KARNATAKA
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
BANGALORE, APRIL 24

THE Congress on Wednesday promised interest-free loans to farmers, free laptops to pre-university students and rice at Re 1 per kg to BPL card holders if it came to power in Karnataka, where Assembly elections

Careers
EXPRESS

will take place on May 5. Interest-free loans up to Rs 2 lakh and on three per cent interest up to Rs 5 lakh, establishment of a Rs 1,500 crore natural calamity relief fund and supply of three-phase quality power for eight hours continuously per day were some of the highlights of the manifesto, released by Defence Minister A K Antony. The party promised to provide free laptops or digi-

tal notepads to all PUC students and making Kannada the medium of instruction and teaching English compulsory from the first standard. It expressed commitment to total implementation of the Food Security Act and offering Re 1 per kg of rice up to 30 kg for below-poverty-line families. A one-time loan waiver to SC, ST, OBC, women,

child, fisheries and minorities corporation, and carrying forward unspent budgetary allocations of special component plans were some of the promises in the social welfare department. The party also promised fast-track courts to try terrorism-related cases and crime against women and children, and constitute a panel to look into cases of detention of innocents in terrorism related cases.

FEELING increasingly cramped in its headquarters building, the ever-expanding CRPF recently requested Urban Development Ministry for a plot of land lying vacant on Lodhi Road. The plot is owned by National Building Construction Company, a PSU attached to the ministry. While the CRPF has been assured that its request would be considered sympathetically, it is learnt that the Urban Development Ministry has, in the past, been not very keen to part with that piece of land because of its prime location.

OPPOSITION members in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are faced with different set of constraints as they plan to move a breach of privilege motion against the leak of the draft report of the JPC on 2G spectrum allocation. Since committee chairman P C Chacko, who is being blamed by the Opposition parties for the leak, is not a member of the Rajya Sabha, the privilege motion in the Upper House can only be invoked on the act of leakage and not against Chacko himself. The Lok Sabha members have the luxury of directly blaming Chacko for the leak but have another handicap. Chacko himself happens to be the chairman of Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha! jayakumar is hearing important NIA cases related to fake currency and terror crimes but is due to retire at the end of this month. The NIA had asked Home Ministry to intervene and request the Kerala High Court to grant an extension to the judge till the trial in some of these cases was over. But the High Court asked the Centre to bear the expenses of the judge in case of an extension. The NIA is now trying to work out a formula where the Centre and the state will split the expenses between themselves.

MONEY MATTERS

THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) is feeling disappointed with a decision of the Kerala High Court, turning down Centres request for an extension for special judge at Kochi. The special judge at Ernakulam S Vi-

THE CBI on Wednesday arrested seven more persons in the case of murder of DSP Ziaul Haque, including four close associates of slain pradhan of Balipur village Nanhey Yadav. They were part of the mob which beat up the DSP when he went to the village after the murder of Nanhey Yadav on the evening of March 2. Dharini Mishra, Chief Information Officer of CBI, confirmed the arrests. Earlier, the CBI had arrested the pradhans son and his two brothers Phool-chand and Pawan, besides an associate Manjit Yadav. Those arrested today were the slain pradhans associates Ghanshyam Saroj, Ram Lakhan Gautam, Ram Asrey Saroj and Shivram Pasi, his private security guard Bulle Pal, and neighbours Chhotey Lal Yadav and Munna Patel. A CBI official said they were arrested following information from witnesses to the attack on the DSP. The agency has confirmed that all of them were present in the village on the night of the incident.