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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani has said that the opposition will allow Parliament to function only if the Government cancelled 145 coal blocks licences, and initiates an enquiry into allegations of misappropriation of funds. Advani told media here yesterday that leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj had offered these conditions to Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi in order to end the Parliament impasse. "Sushma (Swaraj) told Sonia Gandhi that this impasse can be solved by cancelling the 145 coal block allocations, and by conducting an impartial enquiry on the allegations that the money made from these has been used for political purposes instead of going to the exchequer," Advani said. Advani further said that the demand for Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's resignation was a separate manner, and that he should go like other central ministers who resigned in the wake of the infamous telecom scam. "The Prime Minister's resignation is related to the scam. If you have one set of standards for Dayanidhi Maran and A. Raja and another set for the Congress, this is not acceptable," he added. With no end to the government-BJP standoff over CAG report on coal blocks allocation, the last week of the Monsoon Session of Parliament began on Monday with a repeat of stormy scenes raising the possibility of a washout of the remaining four days. The month-long session, which already lost the previous two weeks to BJP's unrelenting demand for resignation of the Prime Minister, again saw uproar created by BJP members, leading to wastage of one more day of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The BJP has held the Prime Minister, who then held direct charge of the coal ministry, responsible for what has been estimated as a notional loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores by the CAG in coal block allocations, and demanded his resignation. The CAG report on coal block allocations states that nearly 150 coalfields were allotted to private and state-run firms without transparency and objectivity between 2005 and 2009. However, Dr. Singh had rejected the CAG's observations as 'misleading' and 'flawed', and blamed the opposition parties for thwarting the efforts of his government to bring a policy of competitive bidding. Dr. Singh also ruled out any possibility of quitting the top post despite the BJP firm on its demand for his resignation over the coal blocks allocation issue. Interacting with mediapersons onboard the special plane while returning to New Delhi from Tehran after attending the 16th NAM summit, Dr. Singh said that he can't get into a war of words with political leaders, and added that he has to maintain the dignity of the office of the Prime Minister.

BJP will let Parliament function only if coal licences are cancelled: Advani