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Plea in SC seeking PM's affidavit on coal block allocation

Kashmir Times. Dated: 10/22/2013 8:20:56 PM

NEW DELHI, Oct 21 (Agencies): An advocate today sought the Supreme Court's direction to the Prime Minister to file an affidavit to make his stand clear on the FIR filed against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary P C Parakh in a coal block allocation case.
M L Sharma had earlier filed a petition in Coalgate naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a respondent. The apex court is monitoring the CBI probe into the coal scam.
The lawyer, who filed an application in the wake of statement by Parakh that the Prime Minister knew of the coal blocks being allocated to companies like Hindalco and he too should be named as a "conspirator" and made an "accused", submitted that Singh must make clear his position.
Sharma, who filed an additional affidavit in support of his application, said that for the first time since the coal block allocation scam cropped up, the Prime Minister has explained about one allocation.
"But there have been more than 150 coal block allocations, so will he be able to explain all of them,?" he said.
"That within the above said scenario and the PM's statement on his website which is in public domain, it is a confession of the then coal minister to allot the coal block and he had taken decision on the basis of the documents and facts submitted to him," he said.
The PMO had on October 19 defended the decision as "appropriate" and said the Prime Minister had approved it on the basis of "merits" of the case placed before him.