It's a brazen cover-up, House won't function:CPM on coal files

Yechury asks why the government was not investigating if the files are missing and why no FIR was registered

Indicating more trouble for the UPA government in Parliament, CPI(M) today accused it of a "brazen cover-up" on the missing coal block allocation files, saying crucial questions were left unanswered by the Prime Minister in his statement.

"The Prime Minister offered virtually no explanation as to why the files went missing, who is responsible, which period these files pertain to and why no complaint or FIR was lodged for the missing files," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

"It is brazen cover-up, even though a very shoddy job. It was not a smart way to go about," he said, adding "I don't think the House will function for some time now."

Maintaining it was "very clear that the bar of suspicion has risen further", he said there seems to be a "conspiracy to not let the truth come out."

"We also saw a most unusual spectacle of the Prime Minister walking out in a brisque manner soon after his statement ... We were earlier told that the Coal Minister will reply, but he didn't," Yechury said.

He asked why the government was not investigating if the files are missing and why no FIR was registered. He said there was no reply from the Prime Minister on these counts.

Yechury said the Prime Minister had also not given any response to the question why it was not accessing these files from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which, on the basis of these documents, has come to the conclusion regarding a presumptive loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore.