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Govt working on single-window system to boost coal production

Kolkata: Sumanta Chaudhuri, Secretary, Ministry of Coal on Wednesday said that the ministry has been working on the policy interventions to develop a single window system for faster approvals of clearances from various Central and State agencies. The application forms may be managed through an online dashboard system and the movement of the applications will be monitored.

He was speaking at a stakeholders' consultation programme organised by the Ministry of Coal in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at a city hotel on Wednesday.

Chaudhuri also pointed out that the Ministry has started the process of auctioning of 27 coal mines and allotment of 15 coal mines to Central PSUs & State PSUs. The Centre is contemplating to remove the necessity of prior approval of the Central Government before the State Government grants mining lease. It will speed up the process of mining lease by State Government, he said.

It may be mentioned here that the Ministry of Coal has already taken policy decisions to ensure early operationalisation of coal mines which include allowing sale of 25 per cent coal in open market in case of allocation for specified end use plant, relaxation in efficiency parameters, provision of grace periods, introduction of e-CPMP, MDMS portal etc.

According to Chaudhuri, the coal sector has witnessed a slew of reforms in last few years. The Centre is also taking measures to address various challenges like logistical inefficiencies along with economic, institutional and environmental hurdles and capacity related issues in the coal units.

Ashish Upadhyaya, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Coal during his address discussed on the policy decisions undertaken to ensure ease of doing business, online electronic auction process and shared details of the blocks available for allocation.

Rudra Chatterjee, Chairman, FICCI West Bengal State Council who was also present at the programme said that the history of coal mining in India began in Bengal. Not only in terms of energy source but the coal sector also plays an important socio-economic role in the country in terms of generating employment.

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