
New Delhi, June 14:
Nearly 69.635 million tonnes of Coal India Ltd's output is stuck due to pending forestry and environmental clearances.
“A total of 50 cases of stage-II clearances are pending across six
subsidiaries of Coal India. Out of these, 31 cases are pending with
different State Governments and another 19 cases are stuck at Ministry
of Environment and Forests (MoEF),” said a Coal Ministry official.
Projects getting delayed due to forest and environmental clearances were
discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr
Manmohan Singh, recently.
“The Coal Minister, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal, has asked the Coal Secretary,
Mr S.K. Srivastava, to take up each case with the States concerned and
the Environment Ministry to hasten the pending clearances,” the official
added.
Out of the pending approvals, the worst hit is South Eastern Coalfields
Ltd (SECL) whose 30 forestry approvals are stuck. Of these, 18 are with
State Governments and 12 are with the Environment Ministry, resulting in
46.26 million tonnes of coal not being mined.
Only two out of eight subsidiaries of Coal India – Northern Coalfields
Ltd and North Eastern Coalfields – are left with no pending forestry and
environmental approvals.
In the stage-I of forestry clearance, an in-principle agreement is
signed between the Government and the miner for allotment of the mining
area. Thereafter, in stage-II the land is formally handed over to the
miner for exploitation after the company deposits required fees and
completes other formalities such as rehabilitation of households and
plantation of equal number of tress displaced, among others.
Coal India targets to produce 464.10 million tonnes of coal in 2012-13. Last fiscal, it produced 436 million tonnes.
Courtesy: THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE