The Indian coal allocation scam or the most famous coal controversy in 2012 has resulted in a widespread distress among the citizens and the anti-corruption protesters and the anger has come out in the form of street demonstrations against the ruling party and the prime minister of India Mr. Manmohan Singh.
Arvind Kejriwal, anti -corruption activist and Anna Hazare along with his team marched towards the residences of the Prime Minister, Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party members residences. The police had to use tear gas and water cannons to prevent the crowd from entering these residences.
Considered as one of the biggest scam in the last decade, the Indian coal allocation scam is a political controversy highlighting the nation’s irregularities in the matter of handling national coal deposits.
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Bharatiya Janata Party, the party in opposition has stated that the ruling party, the Congress have made irregular distribution allocation of the coal deposits between the public sector entities and the private companies during the period from 2004 to 2009.
As a matter of fact the estimate in total of the coal scandal is nearly Rs. 1,067,303 crore. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India have accused the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as being involved in the scandal and want him to resign from his post.
The coal allocation scam has resulted in a deadlock in the parliament as a result of which only seven parliament sessions took place in the month of August instead of the usual twenty. A Public Interest Litigation has been filed by advocate M. L. Sharma as a request to cancel the allocation of all the 194 coal blocks on the grounds of illegality and unconstitutionality.
As a result of this litigation, the Supreme Court of India, in its September 2012 hearing has ordered the government in power, the Congress to state the reasons for not following the 2004 policy of competitive bidding for coal block allocation.
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Whoever is involved in the coal allocation scam, one thing is for sure that the roots of corruption in India are growing deeper and deeper day by day. Bharatiya Janata Party, the strongest party in opposition has stated that as many as 142 coal blocks have been allocated to private entrepreneur’s, most of whom were not even actual users and traders.
The ruling party, Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have stated that all these allegations are completely false and the Government of India will look into the matter with deepest concerned.