प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का प्रबंधन या तो दुरुपयोग या ग़लत आवंटन से ग्रस्त है। इसे ठीक करना होगा। हम कोयला, खनिज, स्पेक्ट्रम जैसे महत्वपूर्ण प्राकृतिक संसाधनों पर राष्ट्रीय नीतियाँ बनाएँगे… हम बहुमूल्य संसाधनों की नीलामी ई-नीलामी सहित कुशल तंत्रों के माध्यम से लागू करेंगे।

This promise was written in the shadow of the CAG's 2012 reports on coal block allocation and spectrum, and the manifesto says so in unusually blunt language: "In recent years, it has been noticed that country's tangible and intangible resources have been looted with impunity… The management of natural resources is marred with either misappropriation or misallocation. This has to be set right." The operative commitments are national policies on coal, minerals and spectrum, and: "We will implement auction of precious resources through efficient mechanisms including e-auction."

On mechanism, the promise was delivered, and the change is structural rather than cosmetic. The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 followed the Supreme Court's cancellation of 204 allocations in 2014 and put coal blocks on statutory auction; the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015 did the same for major minerals; spectrum has been auctioned since 2010 and remained so.

The Ministry of Coal describes the current process to Parliament on 1 April 2026 in terms that track the promise almost word for word: "Auctions are conducted entirely online through the secure online platform of MSTC Ltd… with clear eligibility criteria, predefined revenue-sharing bids, public disclosure of tender documents, and time-stamped bid submissions to limit discretion. Details of qualified bidders, auction outcomes, and allocations are placed in the public domain." Misrepresentation can lead to cancellation of a block, and debarment from future auctions is available as a deterrent.

Discretionary allocation by a screening committee — the practice the CAG's reports were about — no longer exists for these resources. That is the substance of the promise and it was met.

Two limits on how far this fact-check can go.

The answer contains no numbers at all. How many blocks have been auctioned, what revenue share states have realised, how much coal auctioned blocks actually produce — none of it appears. A process can be transparent and still deliver little; the ministry's own sentence, "Strengthening real-time scrutiny and enforcing penalties decisively are critical to ensuring that private participation in commercial coal mining remains competitive and transparent", reads as an acknowledgement that scrutiny and penalties are not yet where they should be.

And auctioning changed how resources are allocated, not who ends up mining them or at what environmental cost. Those are separate questions this promise did not address and this entry does not grade.

Our verdict is lacks context.