Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel on Friday virtually gave the clean chit to the NDA government over the sale of the Centaur Hotel at Juhu in Mumbai, saying that there have been no serious irregularities noticed in the deal of the hotel.

He made the statement in the Lok Sabha.

The statement gathers significance in the light of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s demand that a Joint Parliamentary Committee be set up to probe the 'entire gamut' of sale of public sector units like Centaur Hotel, Modern Foods, Balco, Paradeep Phosphate, ITDC and HCI hotels, VSNL and Jessop.

The CPM has demanded an enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Central Vigilance Commission into the sale of Juhu Centaur Hotel as well as Airport Centaur Hotel and said that serious irregularities had taken place in the sale process.

The Left zeroed in on the sale of Airport Centaur hotel in Mumbai because the Comptroller and Auditor-General report says cost the government Rs 145 crore (Rs 1.45 billion).