Coal files on power projects of top corporates missing

Reliance Power, Tata Sponge and Iron among players

Though the Coal Ministry has handed over a set of files and documents on the allocation of coal blocks to the CBI, which is probing Coalgate, files and documents pertaining to meetings of the Screening Committee, mega power projects involving corporate giants like Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power, Tata Sponge and Iron, Rathi Steel and Power Limited and others continue to remain untraceable.

Despite many files and documents continue to remain missing and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having stated in Parliament that a complaint would be filed if documents remain untraceable, the Ministry has been reluctant to ask the CBI to file an FIR.

The Ministry handed over files and documents to the CBI on Monday after a two-week deadline set by the Supreme Court ended. Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati sent to the Ministry on September 2 the list of documents and files that were to be submitted to the CBI. The Search Committee, headed by an Additional Secretary (Coal), and Secretary (Coal) S.K. Srivastava, had undertaken a hectic search for the files that extended to the Steel and Power Ministries, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

The CBI had sought files and documents on the present status of Reliance Power-owned 4,000 MW Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP), when was it commissioned, when coal extraction began in all three captive blocks, how much incremental coal has been used so far in the Chitrangi project from the captive blocks allocated to Sasan UMPP.

In the case of the Radhikapur East coal block of Tata Sponge Iron Ltd. and SCAW Industries, files pertaining to application for block allocations, and change of name of the company are not complete and these have not been provided despite the claims made in August by the Ministry to the CBI of having supplied these files and documents.

Similarly, the minutes of the 26th Screening Committee’s final meeting are also missing. The Ministry has told the investigating agency that the Ministries of Steel and Power were urged to search for the files/documents of the final minutes but till date nothing has been found. Similarly, presentations made by Rathi Steel and Power before the 36th Screening Committee remain untraceable. Also, the file pertaining to recommendations made by Congress MP Vijay Darda in the case of the Bander block to AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd. continues to remain missing and the PMO was asked to trace the same.