New York: Leader of Opposition in Rajya sabha, Arun Jaitley, has expressed surprise over the fact that while CBI has named former coal secretary P C Parakh as an accused in the coalgate FIR, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was holding the charge of Coal ministry at that time and was the ‘competent authority' has been kept out of the probe.
According to Jaitley, naming industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary P C Parakh by the CBI in its FIR sent a “very, very adverse” signal that investors and civil servants will face investigation for irregularities, while the “competent authority” in the case, the Prime Minister who held the coal portfolio, “will go scot-free”.
He said successive corruption scandals like the spectrum and coal blocks allocation are adding to the “disillusionment” towards the UPA government.
