Senior BJP leader M.M. Joshi-headed PAC of Parliament on Friday saw some of the Congress members raising objections to circulation of newspaper clippings on the controversial coal block allocation issue to the members, maintaining that these clippings were critical of the government. These members also questioned the need of questioning the national auditor on the issue as they felt that much of it is already available in the public domain.
The ruling party members also insisted that the CAG had “exaggerated” the loss figure, which was contradicted by CAG Vinod Rai who was being questioned by the panel. Mr Rai even said that the national auditor would have failed in its duty by not mentioning the financial gain to private firms. The main Opposition BJP has been demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation on the issue along with the cancellation of the controversial coal blocks and an independent probe into the issue. The issue had led to the washout of the entire Monsoon Session of Parliament, following disruptions by the BJP-led Opposition. The parliamentary panel in its last meeting had decided to take up the four CAG reports tabled during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.