Kumar Vishwas takes on Manish Tiwari over his comments on CAG

Noida/ Kanpur, Aug 19 (ANI): The close aide of anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare, Kumar Vishwas, on Sunday rapped Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari for his scathing remarks on CAG report that accuses government of selling dozens of coal blocks at a fraction of their market price, costing the exchequer potential revenues of around $33.3 billion.

Interacting with mediapersons in Noida, Vishwas said people like Tewari should respect the autonomous status of institutions like the CAG.

"The CAG, Election Commission and the Supreme Court, these three are such institutions whose autonomy people still respect. He (Tewari) has talked of the CAG to stay within its limits. I request him and his other two co-leaders and his young prince, the Prime Minister is unfortunately not even elected as he has come from the Rajya Sabha, all three of them should contest elections. Then they will understand if the CAG is more important in this country, or they are," he said.

However, also commenting on the issue was India' coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal who said the government took the decision to allot the coal blocks keeping the interest of the nation in mind.

"CAG is an audit agency. Its job is that certain books would be brought in front of it, and it has to find out the government's profit in it and makes a report on it. The Indian government's responsibility is to ensure the profit of more than a billion people of the country. They make policies for that matter. The policy was not only made by the UPA-I government, but also by the NDA, and also the governments before that. NDA allotted 35 coal blocks. As the demands for coal blocks increased, UPA-I gave away about 100 coal blocks. There is nothing wrong here. Whatever has been done, has been done in the interest of the country," Jaiswal said in Kanpur.

The CAG accused the government of allocating coal blocks, power projects and land for Delhi's flagship airport at a fraction of market prices, potentially costing the exchequer tens of billions of dollars in lost revenues. (ANI)