Coal news and updates

The Centre on Thursday admitted before the Supreme Court that there were irregularities in coal block allocations. Attorney General, Goolam E Vahanvati told the Supreme Court that something had gone wrong in the allocation of coal blocks and it could have been done in a more refined manner. "We took decision in good faith but something turned out to be wrong," Vahanvati told the apex court. On Wednesday, Congress-ruled Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh took an identical stand like the opposition-ruled mining states to squarely blame the Centre in the Supreme Court for alleged irregularities in coal blocks allocation.

 

The state governments' stand assumes significance as they contradicted the position taken by Attorney General G E Vahanvati who had contended that Centre's role is confined only to identification of coal blocks. Maharashtra government told a three-judge bench headed by Justice R M Lodha that allocation of coal blocks is "entirely controlled and regulated by the Centre". Senior advocate Vivek Tankha, appearing for Maharashtra government, submitted that the state has a minimal role to play in the allocation and "it is just a subordinate party in the process." Andhra Pradesh Government also took a stand similar to Maharashtra. West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkahand, Odisha and Chhatisgarh also told the apex court that they played a minimal role in coal blocks allocation and had squarely blamed the Centre for alleged irregularities in coal blocks allocation. 

 

Source: PTI