New Delhi: Underlining that auction cannot be the only way to allocate natural resources, Minister of State for personnel V Narayanasamy on Thursday said government has every right to decide the policy keeping in mind the common man`s interest.
Ridiculing the demand for auctioning of natural resources, the Minister said, "Oxygen is also a natural resource. Water is also natural resource.... If you auction the oxygen then every man and woman should have a monitor here in their nose".
"Elected government has to decide the policy. They should see the welfare of the people. We should not have the same policy for everybody for everything.”
"The policy government decides in the interest of the people, the public interest, the common man`s interest. While implementing the policy, if someone commits blunder, punish but not the whole system. The government has got every right to decide," he said.
Speaking at the valedictory session of the annual conference of CBI and state anti-corruption bureax, he said country needs iron, cement and steel for infrastructure development and if iron ore is auctioned, the needs would not be fulfilled because of skyrocketing prices.
"Undue advantage should not be given to anybody. People should not tinker with the system. Within the system if the common man is benefited, yes, the bonafide decision should be protected. There is fine difference between the bonafide and malafide decision," he said.
Earlier speaking during the session, CVC Pradeep Kumar also advocated that natural resources allocation should be guided by common good.
"The touchstone of the appropriateness of any policy on the allocation of natural resources is constitutional mandate of the common good," he said.
PTI
