Coal news and updates

MoC assures separate auction of coal blocks for steel industry

June 25:  A separate auction for allotment of coal blocks to the steel industry will be done expeditiously  and actions will also be taken soon to increase the capacity of washeries in the Jharia Coal Fields to improve the supply of coking coal to the steel industry, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

Goyal said this in a joint meeting with his counterpart in Ministry of Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment Narendra Singh Tomar, and Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javedkar on June 24.

Coal Ministry will also review all the notifications issued in the past to ascertain if any notification went beyond the law. “If any notification is found to have been issued in violation of law, it would be repealed,” Goyal added.

Speaking in the meeting, Prakash Javadekar said that the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) will be reconstituted soon and matters pending for clearance of the NBWL will be thereafter disposed of expeditiously.

The meeting also discussed the situation arising out of the decisions of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal pertaining to Environmental Clearance (EC) for mineral leases of less than five hectares area.

It was decided that the MoEF will scrutinize the rules promulgated by State Governments concerning this matter to verify their adequacy as far as environmental protection is concerned and the applicability of the EC notification will be removed in all cases where the State Governments have been found to have issued rules that provide adequately for environment protection, an official release said.