Coal news and updates

City-based Abhijeet Group, which is facing criticism for not supplying power to Mihan, has been penalized by the ministry of coal for delay in coal production. The fine imposed is not much and it hurts the company's prestige more than the finances.

 

The delay in coal production, however, has affected the industries in Mihan. Abhijeet Group is not supplying power to Mihan saying that it can't sell power at the rate of Rs 3 per unit as it was buying coal from open market. Had coal production started the situation would have been different.

 

Abhijeet Infrastructure was allocated the Brinda, Sisai and Meral coal blocks in Jharkhand in May 2005. The first two blocks were to start production in May 2008 and the third in November 2008.

 

However, even after nine years the company has not been able to start production, which has led the ministry to take action against it. Bank guarantee over Rs 15 crore has been forfeited in proportion to the targets not achieved by Abhijeet Group.

 

The inter-ministerial group (IMG) constituted by the central government had issued show cause notice to Abhijeet in June 2013. The company in its notice blamed Jharkhand government, ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and coal ministry for the delay stating that permissions were not given on time and some were still pending.

 

The Jharkhand government took its own time in forwarding the mining lease applications to coal ministry for previous approval. Even after continuous follow-up, the MoEF granted forest clearance to stage I in February 2011. The previous approval for Brinda and Sisai blocks was granted in February 2012 and the revised one is still under consideration of the ministry. Unless this approval is received actual opening of the mine was not possible.

 

The ministry in the penalty order, however, noted that Abhijeet had not provided concrete proof regarding ownership of the land needed for mining. It provided bank documents showing mortgage of two land plots without indicating whether they were the ones required for mining. Similarly, CA certificate for the investment made in mine was not provided by the company.

 

The ministry stated that as Abhijeet had failed to start mining even after three years of grant of environmental clearance, it should be penalized.

 

Meanwhile, another city-based group Jayaswal NECO has been asked by the coal ministry to obtain forest clearance stage II by November 2014 or its block Moitra will be de-allocated. The company has obtained stage I forest clearance and hence did not face any action.

 

The ministry has quite strict with two companies in respect to two other mines. The Chitarpur block of Abhijeet and Bander block of NECO has been de-allocated for delay in production.

 

 

 

Source: ToI