HIT * (News Rating Point) 14.03.2015
उड़ीसा के मुख्यमंत्री नवीन पटनायक इस बार कोल ब्लॉक आवंटन की कवरेज के चलते खबरों में बने रहे. अमर उजाला ने 12 मार्च को लिखा- ओडिशा के सीएम नवीन पटनायक को क्लीन चिट- अदालत ने कोल ब्लॉक आवंटन मामले में प्रधानमंत्री को पत्र लिखकर ब्लॉक हिंडालको को देने के लिए प्रधानमंत्री को सिफारिशी पत्र लिखने वाले ओडिशा के तत्कालीन मुख्यमंत्री नवीन पटनायक को क्लीन चिट प्रदान कर दी. अदालत ने कहा कि सभी तथ्यों से स्पष्ट है कि वे इस षड्यंत्र में शामिल नहीं थे बल्कि हिंडालको अधिकारियों के षड्यंत्र के चलते उन्होंने नौकरशाहों व राजनीतिज्ञों के प्रभाव में आकर यह पत्र लिखा था. अदालत ने कहा कि स्वयं नवीन पटनायक पावर प्लांट लगवाना चाहते थे. लेकिन सत्ता व पावर के दबाव में प्रभावित होकर उन्होंने पत्र लिखा ऐसे में उनके खिलाफ मुकदमा नहीं चलाया जा सकता.
इकोनॉमिक टाइम्स ने लिखा- A CBI special court hearing the coal case said a letter written by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in 2005 to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pitching Hindalco Industries’ case for a coal mine in his state, “cannot be termed to be a mere coincidence”. Special Judge Bharat Parashar said he wasn’t suggesting any criminal conspiracy between Patnaik and Hindalco. द टेलीग्राफ- The Special CBI court in Delhi today said that Kumar Mangalam Birla-owned Hindalco had pulled out all stops to use the services of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik to influence the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the allocation of the controversial Talabira-II coal block in favour of the company. The court has summoned the former Prime Minister as an “accused person” in the coal block allocation case. The court, however, clarified it was not holding Naveen guilty of any criminal conspiracy in this regard. In the wake of court’s observation, the Congress, the main Opposition party in Odisha, demanded the chief minister’s interrogation by the CBI in the case.
ओडिशा सन टाइम्स ने लिखा- Clutching at straws – that is what Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was doing when he latched on to the observation of the special court in New Delhi yesterday that there was nothing to suggest that his government had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Hindalco to hand over the Talabira II coal block in Sundargarh district to the Aditya Birla Group company. “You all are aware of the directive of the court, which clearly states that there was no involvement of the Odisha government in the allocation of Talabira Coal Block-II to Hindalco,” Patnaik said on his return from a four-day sojourn to New Delhi last evening. But what the Chief Minister conveniently failed to mention was the other observations of the court that squarely put him in the dock. It said the letter by him “cannot be termed to be a mere coincidence in view of the fact that the claim of Hindalco for the coal block was negated at the PMO and Ministry of Coal (MoC).” The letter written by Patnaik in August 2005 provided a ‘fresh lease of life’ to the company’s bid for the coal block that had already been rejected by the screening committee, the court said. “Prima facie it appears that the letter from Odisha Chief Minister was procured primarily to scuttle the adverse notes being made by the junior officers in the MoC and PMO,” the special court observed.
