The Union government is planning to allot captive coal blocks through a bidding process

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to bring about greater transparency and earn better price, minister of state for coal (independent charge) Sriprakash Jaiswal said here on Wednesday.

Besides, the government is preparing to come up with a coal regulator in the first 100 days of new government assuming office.

“We are planning to start the auctioning process to allot captive coal blocks. It will bring more transparency into the system. It will fetch more revenues to the government as well,” he said. The Centre will also amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, for this purpose, he added.

The coal ministry has taken up a 100-days programme to finalise policies for augmenting the country’s coal production after the rainy season. “In this programme, we have also included the issue of coal regulator. The coal regulator will be put in place over the next 100 days,” Jaiswal said.

Responding to queries on the possibility of a hike in coal prices, the minister said that there was no need to increase the price at this juncture.

However, he indicated that price might be increased after some time to absorb the rising production costs.

To another query, Jaiswal admitted that problems relating to land acquisition were a stumbling block in augmenting coal production. “About 65,000 hectares are needed to be acquired for coal mining across the country. Over 80 per cent of the projects are stalled due to land acquisition problem. Getting clearance from forest and environment departments of the state governments also takes a lot of time,” he said.

The ministry has asked the state governments to fix a timeframe for these clearances. Asked whether the Centre was planning to divest some of its equities in Coal India (CIL), the minister said that it would divest up to 10 per cent stake.

“This divestment may happen in the present financial year and only the employees of the company and people who have lost their land for coal mining will get the shares,” he said.

ritwikmukherjee

@mydigitalfc.com