A day after coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal accused five coal rich states including Odisha of blocking the process of competitive bidding of the dry fuel, chief minister Naveen Patnaik shot back at the Centre, defending his government's stand on the issue.

“Coal is a subject on which the central government has complete authority. Our government has been asking for an auction based system for allocation of mineral resources including coal for the last few years. While the Centre has done it for coal recently, it is yet to do it for other minerals,” Patnaik told newspersons here.