PM should take moral responsibility for coal scam: BJP

Hyderabad, Aug 19: Former Union Minister and senior

leader Bandaru Dattatreya today said Prime Minister

should take "moral responsibility" for wrongful loss to exchequer due to the coal scam.

Lack of a transparent policy and not adopting scientific methods in the allocation of coal blocks to private firms has caused Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to the exchequer when the Prime Minister was holding a portfolio of the coal ministry, Dattatreya alleged while talking to reporters here.

Dr Singh had held charge of the coal ministry during a part of the period when coal blocks allocation was done and he had to accept responsibility for the scam, the BJP leader said.

Rejection of CAG report and adverse comment on it was an affront to the institution, he said, adding that coal scam was bigger than other scams reported during the UPA regime.

Accusing the UPA government of failing to protect natural resources of the country, Dattatreya said the government was deeply seeped in various scams and people of the country have been fed up with it as one after another scam is being surfaced now and then.

Meanwhile, on the issue of a separate Telangana state, he said Andhra Pradesh party President G Kishan Reddy would stage a 'Satyagraha' in New Delhi on Sept 3 in support of the demand for introduction of Bill for separate Telangana, in the ongoing session of the Parliament.

PTI