Already on the backfoot over the coal scam, State Congress has decided to take the attack to the camp of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and has demanded that the recommendations made by the State Government to the Centre for allocation of blocks be made public.
General secretary of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) and party spokesman Arjya Kumar Gyanendra said BJD should make the names of the companies public instead of describing the coal scam as the biggest.
The Congress wants to know the names of the companies recommended by the State Government before 2009.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had described the coalgate as yet another major scam to hit the UPA-II on his return from New Delhi on Monday.
Annoyed over the manner of coal block allocation by the Centre, the State Government had in June decided to seek certain clarifications from the Ministry of Coal before signing on the lease agreements with concerned parties.
The State Government had objected the manner in which Centre had allocated 32 coal blocks to 64 companies, including 16 PSUs, without consulting the coal-bearing states.
Of the 32 blocks, only three Odisha government public sector undertakings could get allocation. Those companies were: Orissa Mining Corporation, Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) and Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC).
While the State Government’s other PSUs were denied the opportunity, the Centre allocated coal blocks to corporations of states like Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The State Government also maintained that it had to suffer a lot because as many as two lakh people were displaced.