Coal news and updates

After the coal mining reform plan, for which the government recently announced an ordinance on allocation of blocks, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government is looking at similar reforms for mining of other minerals.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum the Finance Minister said on Wednesday, “With regard to other minerals, we are about to take similar reforms.”

The minister also spoke of the limitations posed by the new land acquisition law which prohibits acquiring land for even crucial sectors such as defence and housing for poor. He said that the government is relooking at the second part of the law which deals with acquiring land.

“The law lays down a very complicated procedure for land acquisition. Conceptually acquisition of land is always a sovereign right because you need land for everything including building defence cantonment, highways and houses. Therefore, if the land acquisition was made complicated then the growth process itself gets stalled and this law has made it extremely complicated…. Now, since the confusion has been established, the time has come that at least the second part of the law is relooked,” said Jaitley adding that the government has no issue with the new compensation and resettlement as proposed in the land acquisition law.

The finance minister also said that he was hopeful to get the insurance bill cleared in the upcoming parliament session. Taking up another reform Jaitley said that the labour law needs to change and the process has been started, though he did not give a timeline for the same.

 

 

Source: http://indianexpress.com/