CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday directed for resolving of the dispute raised over limiting of coal supply by Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) to National Aluminium Company (Nalco)’s smelter plant at Angul through mediation among the Central government undertakings concerned.
The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik said, “ Since the essential dispute concerns two PSUs - MCL and Nalco and also involves the participation of the Railways, which is the third Central government undertaking in the picture, the court considers it appropriate to direct that the Secretary Power, Secretary Coal, Secretary Mines and the Chairman of the Railway Board to sit together with the Managing Directors of MCL and Nalco not later than 6 pm on April 26, 2022 and find out a workable arrangement to be put in place so that Nalco’s smelter plant and refinery at Angul and Damanjodi respectively are not pushed to a critical point of shutdown.”
The court was hearing the PIL that Nalco Officers’ Association (Smelter & Power Complex) had filed seeking intervention against the restriction of coal to captive power plants of Nalco. The bench fixed Wednesday for next hearing on the matter and directed for placing of the minutes of the deliberations. The court was informed that in pursuance of the interim order issued on April 22 the East Coast Railway had supplied eight rakes by Monday.
The April 22 interim order had said, “In the meanwhile, if a request is made by Nalco to the East Coast Railway to allocate four rakes per day to transport coal from MCL’s Bharatpur Mines to Nalco’s plant at Angul, such request should be considered by the East Coast Railway on priority basis.”
MCL through its counsel Debraj Mohanty sought modification of the interim order. MCL should not be compelled to supply only to Nalco as there are requirements to supply coal to power plants, Mohanty said, urging the court to ask Nalco to lift coal as per the reduced quantity by other modes. However, the bench said the interim order shall continue till the next date.