Govt seeks AG's opinion on need for coal blocks Ordinance
7 Oct 2014 5:52 AM IST
The Coal Ministry has sought the opinion of Attorney General on whether the government needs to bring out an Ordinance to deal with the issues arising from the Supreme Court decision to deallocate coal mines.
The issues that need to be resolved by the government in the coal mine case include forfeiting of bank guarantees and title deeds of the land mines purchased by the companies, sources said.
The Coal Ministry, they said, is seeking 'advice of Attorney General on the issue of Bank Guarantee forfeited/ imposed on the allocatee companies, the cancellation of mining leases, the right and title of the land purchased by the allocatee companies'.
Depending on the advice of the Attorney General of India, they said, the ministry will take a view on the Ordinance so as to deal with the implications of the Supreme Court's order in the coal case.
In a major blow to the corporate sector, the Supreme Court had last month quashed allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks alloted to various companies since 1993 terming the method as 'fatally flawed' and allowed the Centre to take over operation of 42 such blocks which are functional.
The apex court said the beneficiaries of the illegal process 'must suffer' the consequences and refused to show sympathy to private companies which submitted that Rs 2.87 lakh crore have been invested in 157 coal block and Rs 4 lakh crores in end-use plants.
It, however, saved from the 'guillotine' four allocations one each to SAIL and NTPC and two blocks to Sasan Power Ltd owned by Anil Ambani's Reliance Power and also gave six months breathing time to rest of them to wind up their operations by 31 March, 2015. Meanwhile, State-owned Coal India has awarded contracts for construction of two washeries as part of efforts to augment its capacity to crush coal and ensure better quality of the dry fuel.
The government had earlier said that comprehensive measures for enhancing domestic coal output were being put in place along with stringent mechanism for quality control and environmental protection, which includes supply of crushed coal and setting up of washeries.
'CIL (Coal India Ltd) has initiated action through global tenders to establish 16 coal washeries with an aggregate capacity of 100.6 Mty... Construction job of three washeries are in progress and the same for two washeries have been awarded,' Coal India said in a report. It added: 'Jobs of other washeries are in different stages of evaluation.'
Of the 16 coal washeries, six are coking coal with a capacity of 18.6 million tonnes per year and 10 non-coking coal washeries with a capacity of 82 million tonnes per year, it said.
At present, CIL operates 17 coal washeries with a total capacity of 39.4 million tonnes per year. Out of these, 13 are coking coal washeries with a total capacity of 24.90 million tonnes, while four are non-coking coal washeries with a total capacity of 14.50 million tonnes, it added.
The Standing Committee on Coal and Steel had earlier pulled up Coal India for delays in setting up of washeries and had desired that the coal PSU prepare an action plan to expedite the work of commissioning of washeries.
The issues that need to be resolved by the government in the coal mine case include forfeiting of bank guarantees and title deeds of the land mines purchased by the companies, sources said.
The Coal Ministry, they said, is seeking 'advice of Attorney General on the issue of Bank Guarantee forfeited/ imposed on the allocatee companies, the cancellation of mining leases, the right and title of the land purchased by the allocatee companies'.
Depending on the advice of the Attorney General of India, they said, the ministry will take a view on the Ordinance so as to deal with the implications of the Supreme Court's order in the coal case.
In a major blow to the corporate sector, the Supreme Court had last month quashed allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks alloted to various companies since 1993 terming the method as 'fatally flawed' and allowed the Centre to take over operation of 42 such blocks which are functional.
The apex court said the beneficiaries of the illegal process 'must suffer' the consequences and refused to show sympathy to private companies which submitted that Rs 2.87 lakh crore have been invested in 157 coal block and Rs 4 lakh crores in end-use plants.
It, however, saved from the 'guillotine' four allocations one each to SAIL and NTPC and two blocks to Sasan Power Ltd owned by Anil Ambani's Reliance Power and also gave six months breathing time to rest of them to wind up their operations by 31 March, 2015. Meanwhile, State-owned Coal India has awarded contracts for construction of two washeries as part of efforts to augment its capacity to crush coal and ensure better quality of the dry fuel.
The government had earlier said that comprehensive measures for enhancing domestic coal output were being put in place along with stringent mechanism for quality control and environmental protection, which includes supply of crushed coal and setting up of washeries.
'CIL (Coal India Ltd) has initiated action through global tenders to establish 16 coal washeries with an aggregate capacity of 100.6 Mty... Construction job of three washeries are in progress and the same for two washeries have been awarded,' Coal India said in a report. It added: 'Jobs of other washeries are in different stages of evaluation.'
Of the 16 coal washeries, six are coking coal with a capacity of 18.6 million tonnes per year and 10 non-coking coal washeries with a capacity of 82 million tonnes per year, it said.
At present, CIL operates 17 coal washeries with a total capacity of 39.4 million tonnes per year. Out of these, 13 are coking coal washeries with a total capacity of 24.90 million tonnes, while four are non-coking coal washeries with a total capacity of 14.50 million tonnes, it added.
The Standing Committee on Coal and Steel had earlier pulled up Coal India for delays in setting up of washeries and had desired that the coal PSU prepare an action plan to expedite the work of commissioning of washeries.
Next Story
