NEW DELHI, Aug 20:
Parliament is set to witness a storm when its monsoon session resumes tomorrow with BJP tonight deciding to aggressively press for its demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh over the CAG report on coal blocs allocation.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will be meeting for the first time since the latest controversy hit the Government after three reports of the national auditor were tabled in Parliament on Friday last.
Top BJP leaders met at residence of senior leader L K Advani here this evening to firm up the party’s strategy to pin down the Government on the basis of the CAG reports.
“The BJP is going to very aggressively pursue the demand raised by the leaders of opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Friday that the Prime Minister needs to introspect and resign because he was himself the Coal Minister for most of the period the allocation of coal blocks was done,” BJP Chief Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons.
The CAG reports have estimated “undue benefits” of over Rs 3.06 lakh crore to private parties in coal block allotment without bidding, Delhi airport development and diversion of coal to a power project.
Jaitley told reporters in Ahmedabad earlier in the day that the opposition will take up the ‘coalgate’ issue in a big way in Parliament from tomorrow and alleged that the Prime Minister was directly liable for the scam.
The Government and Congress have responded aggressively to the CAG reports and the BJP demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation, insisting that they were incomplete without being examined by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
They have been sharply critical of the Government auditor accusing him of not following the Constitutional mandate, crossing the line and having the “habit” of adding zeros to its reports.
BJP is likely to reject Congress’ possible argument, as a counter-offensive, that Parliament should defer a discussion on the CAG reports till the Public Accounts Committee debates the reports. (PTI)
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