The UPA Government has sent some Ministers to States to do some fire-fighting on the coal-gate issue.
Among those assigned the job of ‘image saving’ are C.P Joshi, Minister for Road Transport & Highways; Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology; and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of State for Commerce.
While Scindia was sent to Patna, Pilot to Haryana, and Joshi to Bhopal to counter the Opposition’s ‘misleading propaganda’ on the multi-crore coal block allocation scam.
“Different Ministers have been sent to various States for cleaning up the Government’s image on coal block allocation scam.” said a source.
The scam-hit UPA Government’s image took its most severe hit recently when almost the entire Monsoon session of Parliament was stalled over the CAG’s report on the multi-crore discrepancies in coal block allocations.
The task before the Ministers was to address public meetings and hold press conferences to clear the air over the ‘erroneous and disputable” CAG report.
However, Scindia’s press meet in Patna on Tuesday faced some rough weather when members of India Against Corruption clashed with the organisers, claiming they were prevented to enter the venue as they wanted to ask ‘uncomfortable’ questions on cartoonist Aseem Trivedi’s arrest.
Joshi and Pilot, meanwhile, seem to have had a relatively smooth run in Bhopal and Haryana, sources said.