BJP government yet to take a call on four coal blocks issued to WCL

Officials of Coal Ministry and Odisha government tightlipped on the issue.
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik (File Photo | EPS)
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik (File Photo | EPS)

BHUBANESWAR:  Even after one and half years of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik writing to the Centre questioning its decision to allocate four coal blocks of the State to Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), the Ministry of Coal is yet to take a call on the issue.“The Coal Ministry is in no mood to reconsider its decision. If the State Government stood firm on its decision, the only choice left with the Ministry is re-auction of the four blocks,” highly placed sources familiar with the development said.

The contentious issue was flagged during the meeting between Coal Secretary Sumanta Chaudhuri, and Coal India CMD Anil Kumar Jha with Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy here on Friday.

Though officials of Coal Ministry and State Government are tightlipped on the issue, sources said that the matter is beyond the purview of Coal Secretary. Any decision on the issue will only be taken by the Coal Minister.

The four coal mines allocated to WCL are Rampia, Dip side of Rampia, Ghogarpalli and Dip extension of Ghogarpalli. The four blocks are located in Ib Valley of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).Taking exception to the Coal Ministry’s decision to allocate WCL with headquarters at Nagpur with area of operation in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, the Chief Minister had written to the then Coal Minister Piyush Goyal asking for re-examination of the matter.

Though both are subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd, administrative convenience and operating in close coordination with the Government ought to place MCL above WCL which is headquartered in Nagpur, the Chief Minister had noted.“Operationalisation of coal mines requires close coordination with the local administration for land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected families.

WCL with its headquarters at Nagpur in Maharashtra may not be in a position to effectively tackle the issues which are critical to the smooth running of coal mines,” the CM’s letter said giving enough hint that his Government will not be able to provide required assistance to WCL to such externalities.While demanding that the four coal blocks be allocated to MCL, the Chief Minister had suggested creation of another CIL subsidiary if the Ministry felt that MCL would not be able to handle more coal mines in view of its existing commitments.

“The allotment of these four coal mines to WCL will make CIL subsidiaries 100 million tonnes plus coal producing units. The current production of WCL is about 50 million tonnes per annum,” said a senior CIL officer.The CIL has set a target to produce 1 billion tonne coal by March 2025. In the last fiscal, Coal India’s production stood at 730 million tonnes.

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