By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of Mines, Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Pralhad Joshi in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Monday said that there is no provision for renewal of mining leases. As per section 8 A of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act, 1957, on and from the date of commencement of the MMDR Amendment Act, 2015 (w.e.f 12.01.2015), all mining lease shall be granted for the period of fifty years. On the expiry of the lease period, the lease shall be put for auction as per the procedure specified under the MMDR Act, he said.
However, in case of Government Companies or Corporation, the period of mining leases, other than the mining leases granted through auction, shall be extended on payment of such additional amount as specified in the Fifth Schedule of the MMDR Act for further periods of upto twenty years at a time by State government upon an application made to it by government company or corporation, he informed the Upper House.
On Coal Block auction, Joshi said that the Auction of coal mines is a continuous process. Success of auction process depends on the response received from bidders. Following policy measures have been undertaken for providing more flexibility to the prospective bidders:
(i) Amendments have been made in the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 [CMSP Act] and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 [MMDR Act] through Mineral Laws Amendment Act, 2020 enacted on 13.03.2020 to ensure wider participation and competition in auction of coal mines. The amendments in the Acts would enable the following:
Allocation of coal blocks for composite prospecting license-cum-mining lease which will help in increasing of the inventory of coal/lignite blocks for allocation.Repetitive and redundant provision requiring previous approval of Central government even in cases where the allocation or reservation of coal/lignite block has been made by the Central Govt. itself has been done away with.Provided flexibility to the Central Govt. in deciding the end use of Schedule II and III coal mines under the CMSP Act.Companies which do not possess any prior coal mining experience in India can now participate in auction of coal blocks.
(ii) Methodology for auction of coal and lignite mines / blocks for sale of coal / lignite on revenue sharing basis was issued on 28.05.2020.
(b): Ministry of Coal had launched the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining on 18.06.2020 under CMSP Act and MMDR Act. However, during the course of the auction process, 6 mines were withdrawn as per the consultation with Chhattisgarh and Maharastra State Government, and 3 new mines were added taking the total mines available for auction to 38. These 38 mines put up for auction in 11th Tranche under CMSP Act and 1st Tranche under MMDR Act, also included few CMSP mines, which were put up in earlier conducted tranches of auction.
He also said that as per present practice, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) ,through Forest Survey of India (FSI) and the Ministry of Coal had jointly undertaken an exercise to determine the conservation value of a number of coal blocks and with the help of Decision Support System (DSS) software the coal blocks were categorised under High Conservation Value, Medium Conservation Value and low Conservation Value. Irrespective of the conservation value of a coal block, each proposal seeking diversion of forest land for coal mining is processed and considered by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on its merits on case-to-case basis.
There is a sub-scheme namely, “Development of Transportation Infrastructure in Coalfield Areas (DTIC)” under Central Sector Scheme (CSS) namely, “Conservation, Safety and Infrastructural Development in Coal Mines” to give financial assistance for development of transportation infrastructure in coal fields. During the Financial Year 2021-22, Rs. 65.48 crores has been allocated for this purpose.
In addition to above, the following steps are being taken to develop infrastructure for coal industries:Rail Infrastructure Projects for coal evacuation are constructed by Ministry of Railways with Coal Companies and funds for these projects are provided by Ministry of Railways as well as by Coal Companies. Government has undertaken 14 rails projects in the country for coal evacuation.
First Mile Connectivity (FMC) projects are constructed by Coal Companies from their own resources for faster evacuation of coal from mines to siding through mechanized Coal Handling Plants (CHP)/SILO/Rapid Loading System (RLS) systems as part of providing proper infrastructure. CIL has undertaken 35 FMC projects in first phase and 14 FMC projects in second phase. In addition, SCCL has undertaken 3 FMC projects and NLCIL has undertaken 01 FMC project.Road Works are taken by Coal Companies on deposit basis.
