Government receives CBI's new list of missing coal files

A day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament the government had “nothing to hide” on the issue of the missing coal files, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, on Monday, provided a fresh list of documents to Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati.

The list, forwarded by Vahanvati to the coal ministry, mentions the papers yet to be furnished for the probe into alleged irregularities into coal block allocations between 1993 and 2009.

While hearing the matter on August 29, the Supreme Court had asked CBI to give a comprehensive list of documents within five days. It had asked the government to provide the papers within two weeks from the day CBI provided the new list. The AG has told the coal ministry the matter is “extremely urgent and requires immediate compliance”.

The new list mentions 26 papers pertaining to allocations to about two dozen companies, including Tata Sponge Iron, Sunflag Iron & Steel, Adhunik Corp, Jharkhand Ispat, Rathi Steel & Power, Pushp Steel & Mining, Bhushan Power & Steel and Vandana Energy & Steel, according to sources.

The list also contains a recommendation letter from former Member of Parliament Vijay Darda, forwarded by the Prime Minister’s Office, for allocation of the Bander coal block to AMR Iron & Steel, as well as a report by Coal India experts on the financial strength of the applicant companies.

In most of these 26 cases, CBI isn’t satisfied with the documents forwarded by the coal ministry. For instance, CBI had sought applications, annexure and processing files related to the allocation of the Madanpur (north) block to Sunflag Iron & Steel.

Though the ministry had said it had already provided the relevant records, CBI said the file received pertained to Madanpur (south), not the Madanpur (north) block. It had added another file related to the case was incomplete, sources said.

In the case of Coal India’s report on financial strength, while the ministry maintains the specific reply has already been given to CBI, the probe agency says the required document hasn’t been provided. In another case, CBI had sought a copy of a presentation made by Kamal Sponge Steel & Power before the 36th screening committee meeting. The ministry said the file couldn’t be located and the steel ministry and Central Mine Planning & Design Institute had been being requested to search for it.