HYDERABAD: Former union coal secretary Prakash Chandra Parakh said on Tuesday that if the CBI smelt a conspiracy in allocation of coal blocks, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be an accused too since he signed off on the decision.

“At the moment, I would only like to say that in its investigations, CBI is unable to make a distinction between bona fide decisions taken in public interest and wrong decisions. If CBI has come to conclusion that allocation of Talabira (coal blocks) to Hindalco was a conspiracy, then they should have made the Prime Minister, who approved the allocation, as accused No. 1,” said Parakh.

“It is strange that CBI should question my bona fides, when I initiated several measures to bring transparency in the coal sector despite several odds.”

Parakh’s remarks came hours after he was named in the latest chargesheet filed by the CBI along with industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and his company.

In fact, Parakh, a geologist-turned IAS officer of the 1969 batch of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, who now lives in Hyderabad, was described as the coalgate whistleblower and the inclusion of his name in the CBI chargesheet has surprised many following the scam closely.

Parakh was appointed Union coal secretary in March 2004 and despite several attempts by ministers in the UPA government to unseat him remained in that post till he retired in December 2005.

Although the Centre had decided to open the coal sector for discretionary allocations in 1993, it was only in May 2004, after the UPA government took over, that the allocations actually happened in big numbers. As coal secretary, Parakh headed a screening committee whose job was to hand over lucrative coal blocks for mining to private companies. According to sources, the beneficiaries of such allocations were companies that made political contributions to the Congress-led coalition.

Parakh was also against the screening committee’s approach of subdividing a coal block so that more companies could be accommodated. He proposed that the discretionary allocation of coal blocks be scrapped and replaced with competitive bidding. Parakh then moved a cabinet note recommending that the Coal Mining Act be amended with the help of an ordinance to bring about competitive bidding of coal blocks. The ordinance was nixed.

Interestingly, while Shibhu Soren and Dasari Narayana Rao were the coal minister and minister of state respectively when the UPA government took over in May 2004, at the time when Parakh moved the cabinet note seeking the scrapping of the selective allocations of coal blocks in favour of competitive bidding, Soren had to resign due to political reasons and it was Manmohan Singh who was in-charge of coal ministry. The PM headed the ministry between July 2004 and November 2004, when Soren was reinstated.

According to sources, not only Soren, but several MPs tried to get Parakh removed as coal secretary. Under pressure, the officer opted for voluntary retirement but in fact retired on his official date of December 2005. A few months ago, Parakh was of the view that the PM should have put his weight behind competitive bidding.

