CPM's doublespeak on Coal

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat in his article for CPM central organ People’s Democracy, Karat argues that coal allocation and mining, in future, should remain with the public sector when the CPM-led government in West Bengal allotted five coal blocks to private steel majors, JSW and Jai Balaji, without auction, to set up steel and captive power plants in the state.
In another decision that raised a controversy, the Left Front government assigned coal blocks to Sobha Ispat that later sold its shares to Shyam Shell. Not only that, Karat’s own party conceded to Coal India’s letting out coal blocks at Barabani in Asansol under its subsidiary Eastern Coalfields to the RPG group. The Jyoti Basu government also entered into ajoint venture with the Emta Group. The decision had sparked a fierce debate in the CPM’s Burdwan unit. Karat also drove holes into the competitive bidding route saying it would lead to private monopolies and push the cost of power generation, resulting in increased power tariff. Compare this with the CPM CC statement issued on August 17. It says that allocation of coal reserves must be done through a “transparent and competitive bidding.”
The CPM general secretary’s argument that competitive bidding would push coal costs is also not above question, particularly at a time when Coal India can’t meet the demand of the thermal-based power plants across the country.