Union minister calls for action against coal scam accused

The Opposition's tirade against the alleged involvement of two ministers of the Orissa government in the coal scam has picked up steam with the Union minister of state for coal, Sriprakash Jaiswal calling for stringent against the accused in the scam.

“The state government needs to conduct an enquiry by an independent agency into the coal scam or it can request the Government of India for a CBI probe into the matter. Stringent action needs to be taken against all the accused, be they officers or ministers”, Jaiswal told reporters here.

Stating that the Centre has nothing to do with the coal scam in the state, he said that the Centre fixes coal quota for the states and it is the responsibility of the state governments to distribute coal to the consumers.

The scam related to siphoning of crores of rupees through supply of coal at concessional rate to bogus small scale industries. The Opposition has been gunning for the scalp of two ministers- minister for school and mass education Pratap Jena and the minister for housing and urban development Badri Narayan Patra-stating that they served as chairmen of the Orissa Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) between 2004 and 2009, when this irregularities happened, before being appointed as ministers

Though the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given a clean chit to the two ministers, the Opposition members have been boycotting the proceedings of the assembly.

“We had discussions on issues related to forest clearance, land acquisition and rehabilitation of the land oustees of some projects of MCL. We are getting good support of the state government in these areas”, he said after emerging out of a meeting with the state Chief Minister.