Bhubaneswar:
CBI sources today said that they are investigating whether a letter Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to the Prime Minister in August 2005 influenced the decision to allot a coal block aluminium-maker Hindalco, a company owned by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Mr Patnaik clarified today that the letter was to examine the request of Hindalco and that the powers of allocating coal blocks lie with the central government. Here's the statement issued by Mr Patnaik's office: