Govt may ask CBI to probe ‘more damaging’ power, airport deals

 As the Opposition turns the heat on the Prime Minister over the CAG report on coal block allocation, the Government is silently working on handing over to the CBI the other two reports — on Mega Power Projects and Delhi International Airport.

Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned today after the Opposition demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation. However, both the Government and the Congress are confident of facing the Opposition’s onslaught.

A senior Government functionary, who did not wish to be named, said that for the Government, more damaging were Comptroller and Auditor General’s reports on Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) and implementation of public-private-partnership for Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL).

NOT PRESUMPTIVE

“We are ready for a CBI probe into the matter,” the person said. The CBI is already investigating irregularities in the allocation and utilisation of coal mines.

The DIAL report, which is said to be more damaging, is likely to be discussed at the highest level of the United Progressive Alliance as Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel was the Civil Aviation Minister during the audit period. The Government and the Congress are finding it difficult to put up a defence as the loss estimates by the CAG are not presumptive in the case of DIAL and UMPP.

The Opposition, except the CPI(M), is yet to make a statement on these two reports. The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, had said the BJP would soon prepare its views on the two reports.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, told reporters here on Tuesday that the CAG report on DIAL was as serious as the one on coal. CPI(M) MP K. N. Balagopal has already sought a probe into the issue by a “federal” agency.

In its report, CAG had said that of the total capital expenditure of Rs 12,857 crore claimed by DIAL, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India had admitted Rs 12,502.86 crore as the total project cost. In the UMPP report, the CAG said that permission for use of excess coal by Reliance Power from the three coal blocks allocated to Sasan UMPP not only vitiated the bidding process but also resulted in undue benefit to the company.

UNDUE BENEFIT

A Congress leader said the CAG report says the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had written to the Centre requesting that Reliance Power be allowed to use excess coal. “Such things will be revealed only in a thorough probe,” he said.