2 firms got coal blocks without any clearance

Aug 25, 2013 - PRAMOD KUMAR |

Age Correspondent

New Delhi

The CBI probe into the coalgate scam has established that the Lohara East coal block in Maharashtra was allocated to a Nagpur-based company, Grace Industries Ltd, in June 2008 without the recommendation of the concerned state government or the ministry of steel.
In another case, the Thesgora-B/Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh was allocated to Satna-based Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd by the coal ministry in November 2008 without the recommendation of the concerned state government, sources said.
While the promoter of Grace Industries Ltd is an industrialist identified as Mukesh Gupta, the directors of the Satna-based Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd are Pavan Kumar Ahluwalia, Kamaljeet Singh Ahluwalia and Prashant Kumar Ahluwalia, CBI sources said.
The directors of both the companies have been charged with criminal conspiracy to acquire captive coal blocks by allegedly “fudging their net worth figures and misrepresentation of facts”.
In the case of Grace Industries, investigaions revealed that the application of the company was not even received at the ministry of steel for its “views” pertaining to the allocation.
The views or clearance of the steel ministry is mandatory for any coal block allocation.
On the allocation of the Thesgora-B/Rudrapuri coal block to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd in Madhya Pradesh, it has been allegedly found that the coal ministry went ahead with the allocation without any sort of clearance or recommendation by the state government.

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