CAG reports on coal allocation, DIAL, power projects likely to be tabled on Friday

Three explosive reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) set to trigger fireworks in Parliament will not be tabled on Thursday as the two houses will be adjourned as a mark of respect to the late Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, whose funeral took place on Wednesday.

The leaked CAG draft reports on the allocation of coal blocks without bidding, the Delhi airport concession given to the GMR Group and the diversion of coal from ultra-mega power projects have already embarrassed the Manmohan Singh government.

A senior official told Mail Today that the final reports are now likely to be presented in Parliament on Friday. The Opposition had taken the government to task for deliberately delaying the presentation of the reports during the preceding Budget Session to contain political fallout of the shortcomings pointed out in these reports.

The government had resorted to measures such as delaying the tabling of such embarrassing reports till the last day of the Parliament session so that the contents cannot be discussed on the floor of the houses. However, since there has already been widespread criticism, the government may not take recourse to this ruse.

According to senior officials, CAG's main conclusion is that the competitive bidding process should have been adopted to allot the coal mines as recommended by the coal secretary. However, the government ignored his view and allocated the scarce resource on the basis of an opaque policy which unduly benefited private firms to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh crore.

Most embarrassing for the government is that these mines were allotted between 2004 and 2009, when the Prime Minister headed the coal ministry while Dasari Narayan Rao and Santosh Bagrodia were ministers of state. Major beneficiaries include Anil Aggarwal Group firms, ArcelorMittal, Lanco, Tata Group entities, Jindal Steel & Power, Essar Group and Adani Group.

The CAG report on public-private partnership for the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport reportedly states that GMR Group's Delhi International Airport (Dial)- the private company which runs the IGI Airport-has a potential to earn Rs 1,63,557 crore over a 60-year period from the land given to it on a lease rent of a mere Rs 100 per annum.

The CAG report on Dial refers to the leasing out of 4,608 acre for development of the airport with an additional 190 acre leased to Dial. For the additional 190 acre, a one-time fee of Rs 6.19 crore was charged from Dial. The original agreement permitted Dial to utilise five per cent of the total area of 4,799 acre for commercial exploitation, which would work out to 240 acre.

Similarly, the CAG is also reported to have observed that the government's decision to allow Reliance Power to divert surplus coal from captive mines for the ultramega power project violated bidding guidelines and entailed a windfall gain for the private company.