Shinde admits writing to PM on coal block allocation

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today admitted writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 recommending allocation of a coal block to a power company but the firm never got it as it did not fulfil prescribed norms.

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Monday admitted writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 recommending allocation of a coal block to a power company but the firm never got it as it did not fulfil prescribed norms.

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Shinde, as the Union power minister, had recommended allocation of a captive coal block to the company for operationalisation of a thermal power plant in Odisha.

"I had written a letter when I was in power ministry. I had written the letter on the basis of the reasons given by the company that they would build a power plant. But you know that they (the company) did not get any coal block due to the false declaration given by them," Shinde told reporters in New Delhi.