The Coal Scam

The Coal Scam

Coal Allocation:

India generates most of its power from thermal power plants that use coal as the main fuel. The coal mining sector was nationalised in the 1970s.

Coal India was given the de facto rights to mine and When India was opening its economy for the private sectors, the Government of India decided to allocate the coal mines

produce coal in India.

which were not in the production plan of coal India to private players.

Between 1993 to 2005, 70 coal blocks were allocated to the private players. Another 146 blocks were awarded to the private players between 2005 and 2010. The total number of blocks awarded to the private sector was 194 excluding some deallocated blocks.

The CAG Report:

In March 2012, a draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General was leaked in the media. The report stated due to the lack of transparency and

flawed allocation process, the Indian exchequer lost about 10.76 lakh crore rupees from the coal block allocation. Later, the monetary loss was revalued to 1.86 lakh crore.

It was perceived as the biggest scam in the history of India.

Fingers were pointed towards the Prime Minister of India,

Manmohan Singh. UPA government ordered a CBI enquiry into the coal block allocation scam.