'DNA' special: Mines secretary shunted, PMO under scanner

A new controversy surrounding the prime minister Manmohan Singh’s office is in the offing following removal of mines secretary Viswapati Trivedi for releasing to parliament a sensitive report of the Justice  MB Shah Inquiry Commission on iron ore mining scams in Goa.

Singh was holding the additional charge of the ministry of mines at the particular time referred in the Shah Commission report.
Trivedi, a 1977 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre was summarily shifted as chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India, for causing embarrassment to the ruling Congress and embroiling the prime minister in another controversy. Sources said top official had rushed the commission report in parliament on September 7, the last day of monsoon session. He had also forwarded the government’s Action Taken Report (ATR), without the cabinet’s clearance.

Trivedi could not be contacted. Sources close to the secretary, however, told DNA that he had invited the wrath of the mines minister.  He became the second secretary removed from the post, within a year.

His predecessor Vijay Kumar was also shunted out following some differences with the minister.  The secretary has argued he did not feel the need to seek cabinet nod, as he had discussed the Justice Shah report with the mines minister Dinsha J Patel and with all those concerned before forwarding to the parliamentary affairs ministry for tabling it in the parliament.
Patel, under whose name the report was tabled in parliament, has claimed having learnt about it inclusion in the agenda of the two Houses only when he got the agenda papers.  After being quizzed by the PMO, he is believed to have passed the entire blame on Trivedi.

Meanwhile, eight  secretaries from the 1977 and 1978 batches are contemplating to register a protest with cabinet secretary Ajit Seth against the summary removal of Trivedi. The two-part report of the MB Shah Inquiry Commission had asked for cancellation of 148 iron ore leases and action against the state’s guilty ministers as also concerned directors of mines and subordinate officers.

What is, however, worrying is that a new stand had slipped in the ATR, prompting the state governments to cancel the coal blocks granted by the Centre, apparently to pass the  ball in the court of the BJP government of Manohar Parrikar in Goa.

The principle that has so far governed the Centre-state relationship with regards to mining is that land falls in the state’s domain but what is under the ground belongs to the Centre.