Committee headed by Prime Minister allows one time window without assigning any reason and without penalty
Committee headed by Prime Minister allows one time window without assigning any reason and without penalty
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Friday said that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal of the Coal Ministry to give a one-time window to Central and State Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to surrender non-operational coal mines without any penalty. has approved.
The decision was taken by the CCEA in its Thursday evening meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government said in a statement that PSUs would be allowed to surrender non-operational mines without assigning any reason.
“It may issue many coal mines which are not in a position to develop or are not interested to the PSU allottees of the present government and may be auctioned as per the present auction policy. To surrender the coal to the allotted government companies. Three months time will be given to mine the mines from the date of publication of the approved surrender policy,” the government statement read.
The government said that after the Supreme Court order on cancellation of coal blocks in 2014, many of those blocks were allotted to PSUs.
“The allocation route was fast and it was expected that the coal requirement of the State Genco would be met from those blocks… In terms of allocation of coal blocks at that time, the time-limit conditions for operation of coal blocks were very strict and Leave no stone unturned for a determined and successful allottee or designated authority. Penalties for delay in operation of coal mines have resulted in disputes and court cases,” the statement read.
It said that as of December 2021, 45 of the 73 mines allotted to PSUs remained non-operational.
“The delays were due to reasons beyond the control of the allottees, for example, law and order issues; increase in the area of forest as declared earlier; resistance of land-holders against land acquisition; geological issues in terms of availability of coal resources. Surprise,” the government said.
It said that the coal blocks will be offered under the recently introduced commercial coal mines auction policy by the decision of CCEA.