Coal news and updates

Following the Supreme Court's declaration that termed allocation of more than 200 coal blocks by the government as "illegal and arbitrary", the Centre has entered into fresh discussions with industry for finding out new ways of making allotments.

In a meeting organised by the coal ministry on Wednesday, it tried to tweak its existing auction procedure to fit the law. Relevant Acts may also be tweaked to legally allow such auctions. "The meeting was attended by officials from the coal ministry, legal department and industry representatives. It was felt necessary to tweak the existing set of laws so that coal blocks can be allocated to private parties and state governments are allowed to mine coal. In fact, it is now evident that coal blocks cannot be allocated to independent power producers and power utilities under the present set of laws. The fate of the ultra mega power projects ( UMPPs) also hangs fire now," a senior official told ET.

"Alternate auction procedures were also considered at the meeting. However, as the Supreme Court is yet to make a ruling on the subject, a final decision on the subject could not be taken. Another round of meeting has been scheduled next week, by which time the apex court is expected to give its verdict. Tweaking of the necessary articles of relevant acts is likely to be discussed in the meeting," he said.

A Supreme Court bench led by chief justice RM Lodha said the allocation of coal blocks suffered from the "vice of arbitrariness and legal flaws". The allocations relate to the period from 1993 to 2011, during the regimes of both the NDA and UPA governments. However, over 190 of these allocations were done during the tenure of the UPA government, which had defended these allocations in January, when the court reserved its order. The allocations were made on the basis of recommendations of a screening committee, formed in 1992, for evaluating applications from private power generating companies for ownership and operation of captive coal mines.

Another set of allocations was through the government dispensation quota, under which allocations were made by the coal ministry to government companies, including Coal India. 

 

Source: ET