Cong Core Group meets on coal files issue

With the Opposition aggressively targeting the government on the issue of missing files relating to coal blocks allocation, top Congress leadership today discussed a counter-strategy at its Core Group meeting which was told that several files have been traced and only eight remained untraced.
At the meeting, attended by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal is learnt to have given a detailed briefing on the issue of missing files.
The meeting, which was also attended by Law Minister Kapil Sibal, devised ways to counter the Opposition attack which is likely to continue in Parliament tomorrow after today's holiday.

Jaiswal is understood to have said that 769 files and other documents, including application for coal blocks, had been given to CBI by the Coal Ministry soon after the investigating agency began its probe in May, sources said.
Subsequently, CBI on August 14 asked for more files and documents and it was found that 43 files and 176 applications were not there, the sources said.