By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to avoid any trouble during land acquisition for private players in commercial coal mining, the Union Coal Ministry is seriously planning to amend the Coal Bearing Act -1957, media reports said.
The government on June 18 had launched the maiden auction for coal blocks without any end-use restrictions, and technical bids are scheduled to be submitted by September 29. Most of the mines earmarked for commercial auctions are located in Madhya Pradesh (11), followed by Chhattisgarh (9), Jharkhand (9), Odisha (9) and Maharashtra (2).
As per media reports quoting M Nagaraju, Joint Secretary and nominated authority, Ministry of Coal, the proposal is currently in the consultation stage in the Ministry, but if the Parliament approves it, such land can be acquired under CBA and leased out to the private sector. The CBA currently allows special relaxations for land acquisition only to State-owned companies such as Coal India and its subsidiaries.
Responding to Maharashtra’s objection, the Centre is not putting up the Bander mine for commercial coal auctions. Also, it is considering to replace four mines with 20 million tonne per annum capacity in Chhattisgarh at the state government’s request.
