It seems there is no end to the names of ministers and ruling Congress leaders tumbling out in the massive coal block allocation. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's name has surfaced for pushing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and allocate a coal block in Orissa to a private firm in 2007.

He lobbied in his capacity as then power minister for Bhushan Energy Limited (BEL), a subsidiary of Bhushan Steel, to get it a captive coal mine after its case was rejected by the screening committee of the officers and the company approached him to state that it had been discriminated by giving the Amarkunda Murgadangal coal block it had sought to Jindal Steel and Power Limited.

The BEL wrote to Shinde for his intervention on September 17, 2007 and he followed it up fast, writing to the Prime Minister three days letter, stressing that BEL be allocated the coal block "to let the operations begin at the 2000MW thermal power plant in Angul district." He stressed in his letter that "we need to allot coal blocks to the companies with "greater preparedness and attached BEL's letter stating that it was in the state of "readiness" and the urgency was to give it a captive coal block for raw material needed for its power plant.

His recommendation to the Prime Minister was to override the screening committee's recommendations and allow 50 percent share in the coal block in Orissa to BEL and the rest to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge Iron, pointing out the "two entities were owned by the same group."

It was, however, after the power ministry cross-checked details of BEL and its antecedents that Shinde became wiser to rescind his recommendation for favouring the company.