Coal news and updates

Govt stalls de-allocation of 3 coal blocks

February 20:  In what seems to be the first stumble in the coal block de-allocation spree by the Ministry of Coal, the government has decided to put on hold its decision to de-allocate three coal blocks. These are the Ashok Karkatta and Chakla blocks awarded to Essar Power and Chitarpur allocated to Ispat Alloys, because of an interim court order brought on by the concerned companies.

The Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) had recommended de-allocation of these blocks since Essar Power had not obtained environmental clearance (EC) or forest clearance (FC) Stage I for Chakla while for Ashok Karkatta, the company had not obtained the prospecting licence (PL) nor had the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) received the FC Stage I clearance for this block.

For Chitarpur, the IMG had observed that though Ispat Alloys had obtained the EC, FC Stage I was pending. Moreover the MoEF had received the proposal seeking FC Stage I clearance without the FRA compliance.