Coal Min avoids CBI queries on blocks allocated through JV

CBI probe into coal blocks allocated through joint venture route has not been able to progress as the Coal Ministry has not responded to the agency's queries related to alleged majority stake given to some private partners and policy adapted in the allocation, sources said.
The issue was raised by CBI Director Ranjit Sinha in a recent letter to Coal Ministry where he had said that despite repeated explanations sought by the agency on coal blocks allocated through JV route, the Ministry has not provided satisfactory responses.
Under the joint venture mechanism, coal blocks were allocated to PSUs (central or state) which enter in a joint venture with a private player. The benefit to the corporation is that while it makes virtually no investment, it holds majority stake as sweat equity in the venture.

The agency probe has so far revealed that in some cases block allocation allegedly violated provisions of company law as private partners were given majority stake.
Sinha said the agency has not been able to get clear responses from the ministry even through it has repeatedly raised the issue at different levels to clarify points related to policy of giving coal blocks through JV routes.
The sources said agency which had registered a preliminary enquiry into the coal blocks allocated through joint venture route has not been able to register any FIR in this connection as clarifications have not been provided by the coal ministry on the policy.

Another major roadblock faced by CBI in the probe is lack of response from state governments as out of 20, approached by CBI seeking sanction to probe JV companies where state PSUs are involved, 19 have not responded, they said.