Puducherry: Slamming BJP for stalling Parliament on coal blocks allocation issue, Union Minister V Narayanasamy on Sunday accused the main opposition party of trying to "destablise" the UPA government.
Talking to reporters here, the Minister of State in the PMO said "stalling the Parliament is a clear indication of their intention to destablise the government.
However, BJP`s machinations is not going to succeed."
"It is condemnable that BJP does not want a debate on the issue and has been demanding resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh though he himself had made it clear that the government was prepared to have a debate on the matter," he said.
The BJP "is however causing insult to parliamentary procedures and practices and is stalling the proceedings, though any issue should be debated upon. About Rs four crore is being lost every day when Parliament faces impasse", he said.
When the Prime Minister had intended to go by auction mode for allocation of coal blocks, there was a strong resistance and objection against it from the then Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, he said.
These Chief Ministers had written to the Prime Minister insisting for formation of a screening committee and wanted allocation on the basis of its recommendations.
"The allocation was thus made in a transparent manner and on the basis of the recommendations of the state governments," he said.
There was no truth in the allegation and accusation of BJP
that the UPA government had committed corruption and irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, Narayanasamy said.
He said the CAG had no Constitutional powers to criticise the policy decision of the government. "As a matter of fact the CAG had been submitting reports with observations or comments relating to state governments. Have the chief ministers of any states quit their posts on the basis of CAG observations or reports?" he asked.
The report of the CAG was only an interim one. It would go to Public Accounts Committee as per parliamentary practices and would be finalised after hearing the concerned sections, he said.
The final report would be submitted to the Parliament, and then action would follow.
"If the BJP seeks resignation of Prime Minister on the issue, it should first focus attention on its own Chief Ministers and seek their resignation as the coal blocks largely situated in the BJP-ruled states were allocated only on the basis of the recommendations of the Chief Ministers," he said.
PTI
