Way back in 2004, as Secretary of the Ministry of Coal, P.C Parakh had proposed opening up the coal sector for commercial mining and allocation of coal blocks through open competitive bidding.
Had these proposals acted upon, ‘Coalgate’ and India’s current dependence on imported coal could have been avoided.
The Comptroller & Auditor General of India in its report estimated that the Government’s failure to follow competitive bidding resulted in a notional loss of Rs1.80 lakh crore to the exchequer.
Following this report, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court of India. In an unprecedented order, the Apex Court cancelled 214 coal blocks allocated from 1993 to 2010, holding them as illegal and arbitrary.
The book, The Coal Conundrum: Executive Failure and Judicial Arrogance, by Parakh is an attempt to show the inability of the Government to take right decisions at the right time and that of investigating agencies and courts to comprehend complex issues involved in economic and technical decision-making that has taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy and polity, apart from demoralising civil services.
Ri Bhoi District Deputy Commissioner C.P Gotmare, currently reading the book, says, “It explains wrong presumptions and surmises in the case.”
Gotmare says the first of the three parts of the book deals with the country’s coal policy of how the executive inertia compromised India’s energy security and damaged the economy; the second part looks at the Supreme Court’s decisions on ‘Coalgate’ and the flaws in the court order.
The CBI, after investigations and interrogations, filed a number of FIRs, including one against Parakh. Though after thorough investigation the CBI filed three closure reports, the CBI court decided to take cognizance of criminal offences against Parakh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In the book, Parakh says not opening the coal sector for commercial mining resulted in increasing dependence on imported coal. As a result, the Indian companies were forced to acquire expensive coal properties abroad. There were several flaws in the 2014 Supreme Court order which cancelled almost all coal block allocations made since 1993. Judges and lawyers did not have adequate domain knowledge, which at times, made it difficult for them to comprehend complex technical issues.
“I appreciate the investigation that Parakh did into the case and the details that he has given,” says the Ri Bhoi DC.
Gotmare says he has only started reading the book but he has already got into its pace and is eagerly waiting to reach the last page. “I would like to recommend this book to every avid reader interested in inquiring the truth of this issue,” he adds.
Reading suggestions
for the week:
1. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie
2. The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh