NEW DELHI: Former Joint Secretary union ministry of coal K S Kropha, who is currently the additional chief Secretary, Meghalaya and five others were on Monday summoned as accused in a coal blocks allocation case by a special court here.
Kropha is also currently heading the committee appointed by National Green Tribunal to monitor the ban on coal mining in Meghalaya.
Besides Kropha, the court summoned as accused former Coal Secretary H C Gupta, and the then Director CA-I Section of Ministry of Coal K C Samaria.
Summons were also issued to Madhya Pradesh-based Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Limited (KSSPL), its Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia and Chartered Accountant Amit Goyal asking them to appear before it on October 31.
The court said Kropha, who was Member Secretary of the Screening Committee, and Gupta, then Chairman of Screening Committee, were responsible to ensure that all necessary precautions as expected to be undertaken to ensure reasonable safeguards were adopted. Rather, they chose to abuse their official position by not adopting any such reasonable safeguards to protect the public interest, it said. “They, in fact acted arbitrarily and in a non-objective manner while dealing with such important matter of public concern i.e. the natural resources of the country and thus belied the trust of the people imposed in them,” it said.
The entire process of allocation of coal blocks was done in a “brazen fashion”. (PTI)