New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Wednesday said the government will begin the coal block allocation again on a “clean slate”.

“We will begin on a clean slate,” Prasad said when asked about the order on deallocation of coal blocks by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court Wednesday cancelled all the coal blocks allocated from 1993 to 2011, except four vested with the NTPC and other public sector undertakings.

On the responsibility of the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the law minister said: “The court only said there was lack of policy in the NDA government…”

“We said the ultra mega power projects should not be disturbed, so the Supreme Court did not cancel those blocks,” he said.

He added that the blocks will now be allocated in a transparent manner.