Coal news and updates

Joint sampling must to address quality issue: Secy

April 20: Joint sampling of coal supplied by Coal India Ltd (CIL) is a must to address quality concerns raised by the coal consumers in the country, according to Coal Secretary Anil Swarup.

“As far as quality issues are concerned, protocol is very clear on how to settle that. There was some confusion as to how the sample needs to be collected. No single individual would be allowed to collect the samples. It has to be joint certification of samples that gets collected,” Swarup said during a recent interaction with the industry in Kolkata.

“It provides comfort to everybody as both parties will sign that these samples were collected. There should be a sampling system acceptable to both. There can’t be one person going and taking the sample, whoever it might be. It can’t be CIL alone, it can’t be the consumer alone,” he said.

The secretary further said that he has talked to CIL regarding this issue and asked the company to put the sample reports in the public domain.

To a question, he also said that CIL subsidiaries such as Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) must supply washed coal (and not washery grade) as the consumers are being charged for the same.