The opposition Congress and the BJP today accused Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik of being soft to ministers allegedly involved in the multi-crore coal scam.

They claimed that the chief minister who had sacked many ministers earlier for being under the shadow of corruption was now allegedly shielding tainted ones.

Questioning the chief minister's neutrality, BJP MLA Jaynarayan Mishra, who had been a minister in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet recalled that he had sacked three ministers, Nalini Kanta Mohanty, Kamala Das and Prashanta Nanda in 2002 for being under the shadow of corruption.

The coal scam which crippled business in the assembly for three consecutive days, came to light recently after the vigilance department raided the house of a BJP leader for alleged involvement in irregularities as chairman of Orissa Consumer Cooperative Federation (OCCF).

Later, same irregularities were also found in the state-owned Orissa Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) earlier headed by Pratap Jena and Badri N Patra, now minister of school and mass education and urban development respectively.

While the vigilance raided house and office of BJP leader Golak Mohapatra for his alleged role in the scam as chairman of OCCF, it did not file any charge against the ministers though they had headed OSIC in the past.

Both OSIC and OCCF were engaged in distributing subsidised coal to small-scale industries in the state.

"Both bodies indulged in irregularities by giving subsidised coal to fake entities and not real beneficiaries," a vigilance official said.

"How can the vigilance adopt separate policies and yardsticks for different persons?" asked Leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh while questioning the credibility of the vigilance directorate under General Administration Department headed by the chief minister.

"We have framed charges against some senior officials of OSIC. If required the role of ministers will be also be probed," Director of Vigilance, Anup Kumar Patnaik said.

The chief minister, meanwhile, told reporters here that whatever he had to say he would say in the assembly.

The opposition had announced that they would not participate in the assembly unless the two ministers were removed immediately.