The Congress today described as outrageous the BJP's demand for the Prime Minister's resignation over the coal blocks allocation. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Senior Congress leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, there is no logic in the BJP's demand for cancellation of coal blocks. He also ruled out judicial enquiry saying that the CBI has already started its probe into the case besides the scrutiny by an Inter-ministerial Group.

Mr Chidambaram said, 30 coal blocks had already started production and 17 more are likely to begin the operations in the very near future. He said it is not possible to club all the 142 coal blocks for cancellation as demanded by the opposition. He said the government had already cautioned 32 coal blocks and issued show cause notices to five more.

The Finance Minister said, cancellation of coal blocks must be done through a fair procedure but not by any dictat. He also hinted that the inter-ministerial group is likely to give its views on 15th of this month in this regard. Stating that the government has done all that needs to be done, he appealed to the opposition to come to Parliament for a debate. A face to face debate brings clarity and the people can judge, he said. Replying to a question, Mr Chidambaram commented that non-functioning of Parliament is a political problem.
Asked to comment on the similarities between 2G spectrum allocations and the coal blocks allocation, he said both the cases have crucial dissimilarities.

Earlier, BJP has reiterated its demands for Prime Minister's resignation and cancellation of coal blocks allocation. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain alleged that the government is not serious about the smooth functioning of Parliament.
The CPIM has called for an enquiry into the allocations. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, senior Party leader, Mr Sitaram Yechury demanded that the government should cancel the allocation to the private sector.