The Coal Fraud: A Chronology of Events
Indian workers load coal onto trucks at a coal depot on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, August 23, 2012. Indian opposition lawmakers are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after an audit found the government lost huge sums of money by selling coal fields without competitive bids. The auditor’s report estimated that private companies received a $34 billion windfall because of the low prices they paid for the coal fields. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)
TThe Supreme Court ruled on 25 August 2014 that the coal blocks allocated by the government between 1993 and 2010 were illegal. The following is a chronology of events leading up to the judgment:
Allocation of coal blocks: a chronology of events
July 14, 1992
A number of coal blocks which were not in the production plan of Coal India Ltd and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) were identified and a list of 143 blocks was prepared.
1993 to 2010
A total of 70 coal mines or blocks were allocated between 1993 and 2005, 53 in 2006, 52 in 2007, 24 in 2008, 16 in 2009 and one in 2010. A total of 216 blocks were allocated between 1993 and 2010, of which 2 were actually mined in various times. number of allocated blocks 194.
March 2012
Draft CAG report accuses government of “inefficient” allocation of coal blocks during 2004-2009; estimates the windfall allocated at Rs 10.7 crore.
May 29, 2012
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offers to give up his public life if found guilty of fraud. May 31, 2012: CVC directs CBI probe on complaint of two BJP MPs – Prakash Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir.
June 2012
The Coal Ministry forms an inter-ministerial panel to review the block allocation process and decide on either deallocation or forfeiture of bank guarantees. Since then, the government has taken back about 80 coal fields, with bank guarantees forfeited in 42 cases.
August 2012
The CAG’s final report tabled in Parliament reduces the loss to the exchequer to Rs 1.86 crore.
August 25, 2012
Govt says CAG’s theory of projected losses is wrong, no mining yet.
August 27, 2012
PM says CAG is flawed; “CAG’s observations are clearly questionable”
September 6, 2012
PIL in SC seeks cancellation of 194 coal block allocations. Supreme Court begins monitoring CBI probe into coal field allocations.
March 2013
Supreme Court asks CBI not to share details of investigation with government.
April 23, 2013
The Standing Committee on Coal and Steel, in a report submitted to Parliament, said that the coal blocks distributed between 1993-2008 were done in an unauthorized manner. He says the allotment of mines where production has not started should be cancelled.
April 26, 2013
CBI Director Ranjit Sinha submits an affidavit that the investigation report shared with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.
May 10, 2013
Ashwani Kumar resigns.
June 11, 2013
CBI registers First Information Report (FIR) against Naveen Jindal and Dasari Narayana Rao.
October 16, 2013
The CBI filed an FIR against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary PC Parakha.
July 2014
The Supreme Court sets up a special CBI court to hear all coal field allocation cases.
August 2014
The CBI decides to close its case against Birla and Parakha.
Published – 25 Aug 2014 18:29 IST