Chaturvedi right on job pressure: Parakh

But former coal secy says Hindalco case based on merit

P C Parakh, former coal secretary who is at the centre of the controversy after a case was registered against him for a 2005 allocation to Hindalco, has said he “agreed” with former cabinet secretary B  K Chaturvedi’s observation that he had been under pressure, without elaborating.

Chaturvedi had recently said: “There was immense pressure from vested interest groups to remove Parakh and some other honest bureaucrats who stood against wrong decisions.”

Parakh told Business Standard that he “entirely agreed with his (Chaturvedi’s observation”.

He, however, clarified that on the allocation to Hindalco, he was under “no pressure from any quarters”. (PARAKH AND HIS MINISTERS)

Parakh said he had not been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the latter registered its First Information Report on the said allocation.

Replying to an e-mail query from the newspaper, Parakh said Chaturvedi’s statement was with respect to the letter he wrote to the former cabinet secretary.

In the letter to Chaturvedi, Parakh explained his position after former coal minister Shibu Soren’s complaint against him. Soren had sought Parakh’s transfer. “It is not in the context of the Hindalco allocation. Mr Soren had nothing to do with the Hindalco allocation. There was no pressure (and the) Hindalco allocation was made on the basis of the merit of the case,” Parakh added.

The CBI filed an FIR against Parakh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and Hindalco on October 14, for wrongful allocation of the Talabira-II block in Odisha to the private company.

The Supreme Court will hear the matter on  CBI’s status report in the block allocation scam, including the latest case, on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister’s Office has handed over documents related to the Hindalco allocation to CBI. The investigation agency had sought files regarding allocation of Talabira-II, done with the approval of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who held additional charge of the coal ministry in 2005.

The PMO’s correspondence with Naveen Patnaik, Odisha’s chief minister, regarding his request to give preference for Hindalco, is also among the documents sought by CBI.