The government has made a fervent appeal to the Opposition to allow Parliament to function from Monday on the coal allocation issue. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today, the Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram asserted that the government is willing to debate coal block allocation issue on the floor of the house as long as the opposition want it. He said that the Prime Minister is ready to make a statement on coal block allocation in Parliament in the context of CAG report and is fully prepared to answer questions.

The Finance minister accused that BJP is unwilling to allow Parliament to function or discuss any issue. He said, the procedure of coal block allocation followed by UPA was the one followed earlier by NDA and other governments. He said that it is sad that now the government is being attacked for continuation of the policy that has been going on for many years. Mr Chidambaram said, in 2005, government after government in states had opposed auctioning of coal blocks.

He said that the presumptive loss shown by CAG is flawed as the coal has not been actually mined. He said that loss can arise only if the coal is taken out and sold at some price. He questioned that when the coal has not been mined, where is the loss.

The coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said the democratic process is being halted by conspiracy to malign the government. He alleged it was the BJP state governments which opposed auction of coal blocks.