Equal opportunity and transparency key in Modi government: Coal minister Piyush Goyal

Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the Modi government believes in equal opportunity and transparency.

Speaking at an interactive session at Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Goyal said his government continued to work toward these goals.

Highlighting the Coal Ministry's recent coal block auction as a major success towards complete transparency in coal block allocation, he said this had made coal-bearing states richer by over Rs 3 lakh crore over the period of 30 years.

The Coal Ministry was also planning to auction the coal linkages for transparency and equal opportunity for all coal consumers.

He said that structural reforms taken up during the Vajpayee government and further carried forward by the Narendra Modi government had not only helped in averting crisis like that of Greece but take the country forward.

Taking a dig at the UPA government, he said during the Vajpayee government initiatives resulted in a forex reserve of US $129 billion till 2004 and a debt of just US $130 billion, but under the Manmohan Singh led UPA government the debt swelled to US $432 billion when BJP government took over.

"This shows how a strong economy in ten years can be ruined," he said taking a dig on the former UPA government.

Goyal said the Modi government has ushered in reforms which has resulted in a "change in mindset" in the country which in turn helped the government to narrow down unwanted expenditure, prevent leakages and bring in "more transparency" into the economy.