PM cannot escape responsibility in coal scam: Oppn

October 16, 2013

New Delhi, Oct 16: The opposition today targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying escape responsibility in coal scam.

Latching on to comments by former Coal Secretary P C Parakh, the opposition today targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he cannot escape responsibility in the controversial allocations as held the charge of the Coal Ministry at that time.

PM_Cannot

BJP and Left parties demanded a fair and transparent probe into the issue after Parakh said that the PM should also be an accused as he is equally responsible in coal block allocations.

"I am not surprised that the then Coal Secretary Parakh has said that the PM should be accused No. 1 in the coal scam. We are all aware of the fact that he was the Coal Minister during the period of the coal scam and every allotment of coal block has been done with his signature," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.

He said that Parakh should reveal all details about how coal files were disposed off.

"He has spoken a little, he should come out clean now, make public statements of how files were disposed off at that time, how chits were received from Congress party headquarters and the PMO and how PMO transmitted those instructions to the Coal Ministry for allotment of coal blocks either to the favourites or to persons with whom they had struck deals," he said.

BJP Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said Parakh's statement "merits serious consideration" as the accountability of the PMO and the PM is equally important.

"Parakh, who was termed a whistle blower by CAG report, was demanding a fair process for whole allocation through auctioning which was delayed by the government. Until the new rules came into being, these all coal blocks were allocated in a hurry to ineligible persons.

"Therefore, the accountability of the PMO and the PM is equally important. We demand a fair investigation," he said.

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June 25,2020

New Delhi, Jun 25: Diesel price in the national capital crossed the Rs 80 per litre-mark for the first time ever on Thursday as oil companies raised prices for the 19th day, taking the cumulative rate to Rs 10.63 a litre.

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May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: The government on Wednesday said no data or security breach has been identified in Aarogya Setu after an ethical hacker raised concerns about a potential security issue in the app.

The app is the government's mobile application for contact tracing and disseminating medical advisories to users in order to contain the spread of coronavirus.

On Tuesday, a French hacker and cyber security expert Elliot Alderson had claimed that "a security issue has been found" in the app and that "privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake".

Dismissing the claims, the government said "no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker".

"We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems. Team Aarogya Setu assures everyone that no data or security breach has been identified," the government said through the app’s Twitter handle.

The tweet gave point-by-point clarification on the red flags raised by the hacker.

"We discussed with the hacker and were made aware of the following... the app fetches user location on a few occasions," it said, but added that this was by design and is clearly detailed in the privacy policy.

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On another issue that users can get COVID-19 stats displayed on the home screen by changing the radius and latitude-longitude using a script, Aarogya Setu said that all this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data.

"We thank the ethical hacker on engaging with us. We encourage any users who identify a vulnerability to inform us immediately...," it said.

Responding to Aarogya Setu's clarification, Alderson tweeted, "I will come back to you tomorrow".

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