Left parties demand through probe into Coalgate, bribery

Left parties today demanded a thorough probe into coal block allocation scam and the bribery episode in the Railway Ministry, hours after Union Ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar quit.
CPI(M) and CPI accused the government and Congress of "obduracy" in not asking the two to resign earlier and save the second half of the budget session of Parliament from disruption.
"They have done a great disservice to Parliament" by not asking Kumar and Bansal to quit earlier, CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu said.
His senior party colleague Basudeb Acharia said the government's "obduracy led to the entire second half of the budget session getting completely washed out."

"Parliament would not have been adjourned sine die two days ahead of schedule had the government and Congress party heeded to the Opposition demand for resignation of these two Ministers," he said.
Asked about Kumar's statement that he quit to end an "unnecessary" controversy, Acharia said "this may be his personal perception but the people's perception is different. He has been indicted by the Supreme Court for vetting and making changes in CBI's coal scam probe report. He is solely responsible for changing the heart of this report."

Basu said the CBI inquiry should bring out the "dynamics of the coal scam as well as the (railway) bribery case. The inter-connections have to be uncovered in both cases."

In a statement, CPI too targetted the government saying "if this wisdom had prevailed earlier, the second half of the budget session would not have been washed out. Congress took the decision of resignations late, because of false prestige."
"It is a shame on UPA II that so many scams and corruption allegations are coming one after another. Seven Ministers in the last few years resigned due to corruption charges, while one is back in the Ministry.
It also demanded a thorough probe into "tampering" of CBI probe report on coal scam by the Prime Minister's Office and sought measures to make CBI an "independent and autonomous" body.