File charges in 6 Coalgate cases: SC

New Delhi: The SC on Monday directed the CBI to file chargesheet in six cases relating to irregular allotment of coal blocks in which it has completed its probe. A bench of Justices R M Lodha, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph gave the agency three weeks to file the reports.

The CBI, in its FIR, had alleged that JLD Yavatmal, to reinforce its claim for a block, had fraudulently claimed in its application that it was jointly promoted, controlled and managed by the Lokmat group and IDFC Ltd.

‘CBI can probe PSUs sans state nod’
New Delhi: The Supreme Court wants the CBI to file charges in six Coalgate cases. The CBI had filed an FIR alleging that JLD Yavatmal had fraudulently claimed to be promoted by the Lokmat group and IDFC Limited. While stating its net worth, it had allegedly added IDFC’s net worth of Rs 2,544.19 crore and the Lokmat group’s Rs 73.38 crore to its figures. The agency had said in its FIR that JLD Yavatmal would not have otherwise qualified for coal blocks. The company got coal blocks in Fatehpur east (Chhattisgarh).

The Jayaswal brothers — Manoj and Arvind — were named by the CBI in its FIR relating to the allocation of coal block which allegedly fructified after AMR Iron and Steel concealed and misrepresented facts that its group firms were already allocated coal blocks and that it was financially eligible to get the block.

The bench also asked the agency to wind up its investigations, which it has been monitoring for over a year, by April 30 and gave it a free hand to conduct probe against public sector undertakings in states. The court told the agency that it need not seek statutory consent of states to investigate PSUs located in their geographical jurisdiction. The CBI had informed the court that as many as nine states had refused consent in this regard.

When the court wanted to know the reason for the delay in the completion of investigation, senior advocate Amarendra Saran told it that the agency was awaiting response from various countries where letters rogatory had been sent. Saran said out of 169 companies under probe, field inquiry against 149 had been completed. However, in relation to one preliminary enquiry (PE-5) involving the role of 75 state and central PSUs in coal allocation, the CBI claimed that several states had refused to accord sanction to prosecute their officers. Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act requires the CBI to take prior sanction of the state/Centre to prosecute senior public servants.

As the court is monitoring the case, the bench directed the CBI not to await states’ consent.

Addl director appointment sparks row A controversy has erupted over the appointment of an additional director in CBI after the Centre and the Central Vigilance Commission(CVC) locked horns over the choice of an officer whose track record was under question.

The row centred around Archana Ramasundaram, who was appointed as additional director last week, after the CVC refused to send more than one name for the post. Sources in the government said that the Appointments' Committee of Cabinet (ACC) had asked for names from CVC, which decided to send only one name for the post despite receiving a panel of names of three officers from the DoPT. AGENCIES
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Ministerial panel recommends 26 coal blocks for deallocation

The coal ministry had last month served a fresh notice to allottees of 61 blocks that had not yet been developed

New Delhi: The inter ministerial panel looking into the status of development of captive coal blocks to private power and steel companies has recommended that 26 more such blocks be taken back.

A person in direct knowledge of the matter said this after the second day of the panel’s latest round of meetings. The panel reviewed 61 blocks on Friday and Saturday.

This person who did not want to be identified, however, did not specify which blocks were recommended for deallocation or which companies they had been allotted to.

The coal ministry had last month served a fresh notice to allottees of 61 blocks that had not yet been developed. The companies had been asked to revert by the first week of February.
These coal blocks were among those that were allocated between 1993 and 2010, and are being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as part of a Supreme Court-monitored probe.

CBI started probing allocations of coal mines after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the government auditor, published a report in 2012 estimating a notional loss of Rs.1.86 trillion to the exchequer because of a flawed allocation process.
These 61 blocks were the ones in which either the first stage of environment clearances had not been obtained or which had not been explored or had only been partially explored at the time of allocation.

As per procedure, the panel’s recommendations are sent to the coal minister, who has to sign off on them before they take effect. The minister is, however, not bound by the recommendations.
In its 17 January notice, the coal ministry had said that such blocks would be taken back. The notice said that in case a block holder fails to furnish information by these dates, the ministry would take “appropriate decision based on the available information and material on record”.

Prominent allottees whose blocks were under review included Tata Steel Ltd, Tata Sponge Iron Ltd, Tata Power Co. Ltd, Jayaswal Neco Ltd, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, Reliance Energy Ltd, Ultratech Ltd, Rungta Mines Ltd, Essar Power Ltd, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd, DB Power Ltd, Adani Power Ltd, Arcelor Mittal Ltd, GVK Power (Govindwal Sahib) Ltd, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, Monnet Ispat & Energy, Sterlite Energy Ltd, GMR Energy Ltd, Usha Martin Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, ACC Cement Ltd, Uttam Galva Steels Ltd, Adhunik Corp. Ltd and SKS Ispat and Power Ltd.
Courtesy:
Aman Malik
First Published: Sat, Feb 08 2014. 05 23 PM IST
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/rwO4JoVgnLGwlpaa9oGT8O/Ministerial-panel-recommends-26-coal-blocks-for-deallocation.html

Coalgate: CBI’s chargesheet may not cite loss figure

New Delhi: While the Comptroller and Auditor General had claimed that alleged irregularities in coal block allocations caused a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer, the CBI is unlikely to mention any loss figure in its first set of chargesheets to be filed soon.

According to sources, the agency will restrict its chargesheets to explaining how there were misrepresentation of facts, tweaking of norms and undue favours shown to private companies while allocating captive coal blocks.

Agency officials said the Supreme Court would also be informed about the chargesheets on the next hearing on March 10 but there would be no mention of loss in the status report as well. A senior officer said, “We have not been asked so far to look into the losses.”

Officials said it was found that work was either not started in some of the captive coal blocks or mining was done for purposes other than mentioned in the applications.

Sources said the agency’s FIRs were in individual cases and losses in all coal block allocations between 2004 and 2009 and 1993 to 2004 and a wider probe may take time.

The agency has concluded investigations in six cases in the coal block allocation scam and chargesheets will be filed against companies including AMR Iron and Steel, JLD Yavatmal Energy, JAS Infrastructure, Navbharat Power and a few others, said sources. Officials said investigations were over and the CBI director was expected to give final approval on the chargesheets soon.

The chargesheets will be filed on allocations between 2006 and 2009, in which the agency had registered the first set of FIRs in 2012.

The CBI, in its next status report to the apex court, will also inform about close to 40 allocations since 1993 in which it did not find any irregularities, sources said.

CBI sources said their investigation into three private companies — AMR, JLD and JAS — and three others were complete after interrogation of several persons, collection of documents from the companies and various ministries. The agency had claimed in the past that the allocations were dubious and were done in connivance with government officials.

Choppergate: Tyagi kin quizzed again
New Delhi: Aiming to complete the probe soon and dwelling on the fresh evidence provided by European middleman Guido Hashcke, the CBI has reportedly started fresh questioning of former IAF chief S P Tyagi’s cousins in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal. Haschke had recently claimed in Italy that he had paid money to them. Sources said the agency had recently questioned Sanjeev alias Julie, Rajeev alias Docsa and Sandeep in connection with Haschke’s claims. TNN
Courtesy:
Neeraj Chauhan TNN
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Job Scam: Minister did not monitor rural jobs scheme: CAG

New Delhi: A review carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), whose report was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, revealed several irregularities in the implementation of the government's rural job guarantee scheme, with total loss on account of such wrongdoings amounting to over Rs 30,000 crore out of an estimated expenditure of Rs 1.50 lakh crore during the five years of audit (2007-12). The auditor, however, refrained from putting a combined figure to all irregularities unlike in its previous reports like those on the allocation of coal blocks or the 2G spectrum licences.

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said he had personally asked the CAG to survey the scheme. “I don’t have any problems with this report. We will take action on the discrepancies pointed out it,” he said. However, headded that the CAG report pertained to 2012 after which reforms had been carried out to beef up the audit system—concurrent evaluation would assess the scheme alongside its implementation. Ramesh said it would be better than post-mortem done by audits.

The CAG pointed out irregularities like multiple job cards in the name of one person, jobs cards not issued in thousands of cases though money was spent on them as wages; diversion of Rs 135 crore found on sample case study where the actual diversion could be much higher and hundreds of crores misappropriated through unaccounted expenditure.

The auditor carried out sample checks in over 3,800 gram panchayats in 182 districts of 28 states. The auditor pointed out wastage of funds as works worth Rs 4,000 crore were initiated but not completed and Rs 2,250 crore was spent on works that were not permitted under MGNREGA. It blamed the rural development minister for lack of monitoring. The central employment guarantee council conducted just 13 field visits in six years and did no follow up action despite irregularities being reported from different states.
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CAG finds holes in nutrition scheme for kids

CALORIFIC VALUE WAY BELOW NORMS
Mumbai: Even children’s nutrition has been engulfed by the web of corruption. An audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has revealed that malnourished children were being provided supplementary nutrition that has lesser calorific valuethan prescribed norms.

The same audit found similar discrepancies in the dietary intake provided under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) scheme to pregnant and lactating women. “Under supplementary nutrition programme (ICDS), there were serious gaps between recommended dietary allowance and actual dietary intake of the beneficiaries,” the CAG observed.

The commissioner, women and child development department, admitted to the deficiencies and also indicated that the government would take corrective measures.

It also came down hard on the state for deficiency in testing of food samples supplied under the supplementary nutrition programme. The Centre’s norms stipulate that each child between 6 months and 3 years is provided food supplements containing energy value of 500 K cal/day and12-15 gm of protein/ day in the form of ‘take home ration’. In the case of malnourished children, the supplements must contain an energy value of 800Kcal/day.

The CAG audit, however, found several instances where the calorific value of supplements provided was atleast20K cal/day lower than the prescribed norms. While norms require self-help groups supplying food to anganwadis under ICDS to adopt the recipe decided by the government, the CAG has cited instances where this was not being followed.

It said the officials did not carry out testing of food samples as required in several cases. The CAG also pointed out instances where the supplementary nutrition was not supplied for a significant period.
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Coal Scam: probe stalls as CBI awaits files from ministry

Agency Yet To Get ‘Hundreds’ Of Documents
New Delhi: More than five months after the CBI began investigating Coalgate, the agency is yet to receive hundreds of files from the coal ministry as it probes charges of criminality in the allocation of coal blocks to private players.

Although the CBI has been sifting through an enormous mass of information regarding coal block allocations that the CAG has said caused a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the government, the investigation agency is being impaired by lack of access to relevant files.

Closely questioned by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday, CBI director Ranjit Sinha told the panel that information sought by the agency had not been made available.

WHO’S BEHIND THE DELAY?

• Five months into Coalgate probe, CBI yet to get more than 100 files from coal ministry
• Bid to unearth 1.86 lakh crore loss to govt impaired by non-availability of files.
• CBI director Ranjit Sinha hints to joint parliamentary committee that ministry may be deliberately hampering probe.
• Agency investigating 194 allocations since 1993; many available files old and poorly maintained.

Coal ministry’s excuse:

• Officials responsible for certain coal block allocations transferred or retired.
• JPC feels probe slow because of sheer volume of papers to be scrutinized, but CBI claim of delaying tactics serious Coal ministry cites ‘absence’ of officials for delay.

Although he did not suggest that the ministry was stonewalling investigations, he implied that the probe was being hampered. Files with regard to some 40 coal blocks are awaited. Sinha faced a volley of questions from Congress MPs Saifuddin Soz and Sanjay Nirupam, Janata Dal (United)’s N K Singh and BJP’s Prakash Javadekar about the slow progress of investigations. In response, Sinha said non-availability of official records and short staffing were important reasons for the delay.

The official record is required to probe key aspects of coal block allocations like a comparative analysis of applicants that led a screening committee set up under the supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office to select a particular firm ahead of others. Coalgate revelations stung the Manmohan Singh government with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) noting that the PMO had approved the steering committee route for coal block allegations and investigations revealing that crucial minutes of the panel’s meetings failed to disclose the rationale for the allocations.

CBI sources said Coalgate investigations seemed to have hit a roadblock with the agency awaiting files. Many of the files received relate to allocations in the 1990s and are old and poorly maintained. “Some of the files are about allocations made between 1993 and 2004 and are in a bad condition. We have sent reminders to the ministry about other files,” said an official.

The agency is investigating some 194 allocations since 1993, and is finding the going tough. “We are yet to receive files related to allocations made in states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and all PSUs like Coal India, Nalco, Steel Authority of India and electricity boards apart from ultra mega power projects,” said the source.

Some of the reasons advanced by the coal ministry are that officials responsible for certain decisions have been transferred or have retired. Companies booked by the CBI so far include JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd, AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd, Navbharat Power Ltd, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd, Grace Industries Ltd, Vikash Metal and Power Ltd, Green Infrastructure Ltd and Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd. One of the cases the CBI is investigating relates to AMR Iron and Steel, a firm that has drawn comment about alleged links of its promoters with coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal. AMR’s Arvind Jayaswal has been questioned about his contacts with former minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia and the role of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda in the allocations.

Sriprakash Jaiswal has denied any business links with AMR. But his role as an arbitrator in a family dispute led the opposition to allege Jaiswal’s links with the company. The CBI is probing allegations of AMR incorrectly claiming to be a special purpose vehicle of Darda’s Lokmat group and not revealing previous scrutiny.

In another case being probed by the CBI, Yavatmal Energy, a Nagpur-based company, also claimed to be linked with the Lokmat group. Committee sources said the delay could be explained in part due to the sheer volume of papers to be scrutinized but also said the agency’s complaint ought to be taken seriously, particularly as some of the entities being investigated were politically connected.
COURTESY:
Rajeev Deshpande & Neeraj Chauhan TNN
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Mining Scam : Illegal mining-losses between Rs 20k to 30k crore

Illegal mining in Karnataka is a matter that is being investigated by many agencies and the losses that each of these agencies have estimated is shocking in number. The latest is a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India which has estimated the loss caused due to illegal mining at Rs 3414 crore and ironically the state government has been able to recover just Rs 7.22 crore. However according to Anita Pattanayak, Principal Accountant General (Audit) of the CAG, Karnataka, “ if one goes by the current value of ore then the loss can be at an estimated Rs 25000 crore. The current market value of iron ore is at Rs 4800 per metric tonne.

The report of the CAG between the years 2006 and 2011 was put out before the Karnataka legislative assembly. The losses which are mentioned in the report are as per the market value of iron ore in those respective years. However if one takes into account the value of ore today, then the loss is at Rs 25000 crore.

The CAG in its report has made the estimation based on the amount of Rs 750 per metric tonne of iron ore. Today the market value is seven times higher and hence the figure of Rs 25000 crore could be arrived at. However the government of Karnataka which had claimed that it had acted against illegal mining managed to recover just Rs 7.22 crore and that is once again as per the estimated value of Rs 750 per mt tonne.

Photo Courtesy - Codrington, Stephen. Planet Geography 3rd Edition (2005)

Former Lokayukta of Karnataka, Justice Santhosh Hegde who had put out the first report on illegal mining had estimated the loss to be at around Rs 16085 crore. This was a figure arrived at based on the market value of the year in question and the report was based on the mining losses between the years 2000 and 2011.

The report by the CAG would only go on to show the sudden rise in illegal mining between the years 2006 and 2011. It has been considered to be the peak time for mining and the demand for ore has shot up during the China Olympics. This has led to a lot of illegal mining and hence the losses too were at a record high.

In the report by the CAG it states that the department of mines and geology had accepted audit observations of Rs 1212.12 crore and had recovered just Rs 7.22 crore. The report also came down on the Karnataka government for not having drawn up any plan to monitor the Karnataka Mineral policy.

Justice Hegde, says that the valuation done by the CAG is very much in tandem with the report put out by him when he was the Lokayukta of Karnataka. The CAG agrees with the valuation done by us. We had done the valuation for the years 2000 to 2011 and we estimated the losses as per the market value of iron ore of each year. As per our estimates it was at Rs 16085 crore. The CAG has estimated as per the value of Rs 750 per metric tonne and hence finds the loss at Rs 3414 crore. However the loss is much higher if taken at the current market value of Rs 4800 crore per metric tonne.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is also looking into the case and puts the loss at Rs 15000 crore. However in specific to the Obulapuram Mining Company run by Janardhan Reddy it says that the loss caused by this company alone is Rs 5100 crore.

The Central Empowerment Committee which was appointed by the Supreme Court to look into illegal mining in Karnataka is yet to put out a complete report on the issue. But it had told the Supreme Court that it would estimate the loss at around Rs 30000 crore as per the current market value of iron ore.

The Goa scenario: 
The scene is equally bad in Goa too. The matter which was first probed by the Justice MB Shah Commission says that the total loss caused to the exchequer of the state due to illegal mining is Rs 35000 crore as per the current market value of iron ore. This is around Rs 10000 crore more than Karnataka. The CEC too in its report which was submitted recently had estimated the loss at around the same amount. The CEC had submitted an interim report and would put up a final one in the next couple of months which would give a better picture of the loss due to illegal mining.

Photo Courtesy - Tagebau Garzweiler Panorama 2005 - Copy Right - Raimond Spekking

Modus operandi:
The modus operandi in both the states which have been badly affected due to this issue remains the same. In both the cases it has been found that illegal mining took place with the blessings of the government. In Karnataka it was the BJP, JD(S) and the Congress which facilitated illegal mining whereas in Goa the entire blame has fallen on the Digambar Kamath led Congress government.

Thanks to the involvement of politicians in illegal mining in both states they found it easy to flout the norms and mine illegally. In both the states the bulk of the mining was found in restricted areas such as forests which shook up the ecology of the region badly. Further it was also found that ore more than the permissible level was ferried out of the region. This had led to the loss to the state’s exchequer and in both states it was found that the recovery was a negligible amount.
Courtesy:
December 13, 2012
http://vickynanjapa.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/illegal-mining-losses-between-rs-20k-to-30k-crore/