Now, Opposition demands CAG audit BHUBANESWAR: With allegations and recriminations flying thick and fast, the Opposition on Tuesday came out with a fr

Now, Opposition demands CAG audit
BHUBANESWAR: With allegations and recriminations flying thick and fast, the Opposition on Tuesday came out with a fresh demand to embarrass the Government. Bent upon seeing the sack of the two tainted ministers, it called for CAG auditing the entire business transaction of coal by the Orissa Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) in the past 10 years.
At a media conference, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh and Opposition chief whip Prasad Harichandan pointed out that the decision to appoint coal handling agents was taken at 161st board meeting of the corporation. The fuel supply agreement (FSA) between OSIC and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) did not have the provision for appointment of coal handling agents, which has been mentioned by the Vigilance in its FIR, Harichandan said.
The resolution has the signature of the then OSIC chairman Badri Narayan Patra. This, Harichandan claimed, contradicts the statement of the Chief Minister in the Assembly giving the ministers a clean chit.
This was also corroborated by BJP leader K V Singhdeo after the allparty meeting. He said the resolution of the 161st board meeting having the signature of the then chairman Patra was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister at the meeting.
OSIC is involved in coal business since 1992. Patra was its chairman when the new coal policy was formulated in 2007. And during the tenure of Pratap Jena, OSIC was involved in subsidised coal business, Harichandan said. As per the new coal policy, coal transaction by OSIC should have been reviewed by Industries Minister Raghunath Mohanty on a monthly basis. Mohanty has become a party by not reviewing it, he charged.
Singh said coal transaction under all the district industries centres (DICs) should be investigated. The Vigilance has probed transactions of only Jagatpur, Cuttack and Kendrapara DICs, Singh added. Meanwhile, the Opposition boycott of the Assembly continued even as Naveen Patnaik attended the allparty meeting convened by Speaker Pradip Amat on Tuesday to end the stalemate. But the meeting failed to bring out a solution as there was no meeting ground between the two sides.
While Naveen described the resignation demand as `unjustified', Singh alleged that facts placed by them were ignored at the meeting.

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