Coal mine allottees must do their bit to start output: Secy

The Centre has taken policy decisions to ensure early operationalization of coal mines but their allottees should also go the extra mile along with the government to start the mines, a top official said on Wednesday. Union Coal Secretary Sumanta Chaudhuri said his ministry has started the process of auctioning 27 mines and allotment of 15 coal mines, and the process is likely to get completed by November.

He was speaking at a stakeholder consultation meeting on issues related to the coal sector organized by the Ministry of Coal in collaboration with industry body FICCI here. The ministry has already taken policy decisions to ensure early operationalization of coal mines, Chaudhuri said.

These decisions include allowing the sale of 25 percent coal in open market in case of allocation for the specified end-use plant, relaxation in efficiency parameters, provision of grace periods and introduction of eCPMP, MDMS portal, among others, he said. The ministry is also working on policy interventions to develop a Single Window Scheme (SWS) for faster approvals of clearances from various central and state agencies, the coal secretary said.

He said the government, PSUs and private sector companies all collectively will have to solve the problem of operationalization of coal blocks. "It is important to realize that in spite of having very abundant coal reserve in this country we continue to be a deficit in the supply of coal in the overall situation and that is certainly not a happy situation at all.

"It is something that we all collectively need to correct, he said. "One of the major reasons why we are doing this (discussion) to see how we can collectively reduce the time taken and solve some of the issues that have been breaking the operationalization of coal blocks.

"Your are aware that there is certain legacy in the coal sector which of course we are all bound to follow...there have been certainly certain adverse consequences on those. "But the idea is to move on and not get bumped down...

that is precisely what we are trying to do, Chaudhuri said. The coal secretary asserted that along with the government the coal block allottees had to take steps to start the mines and enhance production.

While central and state governments have embarked on ease of doing business, it is equally imperative that all the coal block allottees also pull up their socks, he said. There is a certain degree of comfort which I think that all coal block allottees have been used to since almost most of them have coal linkages "So long that you (coal producers) have coal linkages there is no imperative necessity to operationalize the coal blocks," he said.

Chaudhuri asked coal block allottees to take extra efforts to start production. "So you need to pull up your socks and need to ensure that you go that extra mile along with the government in operationalizing these blocks, he said.

Chaudhuri requested state governments to explore the possibility of simplifying the process of granting mining lease. Speaking on the occasion, Ashish Upadhyaya, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Coal, informed about policy decisions taken to ensure ease of doing business, online electronic auction process and details of the blocks available for allocation.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)