The Coal Ministry officials had “connived” with the JSPL, headed by former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, allowing it to “illegally” mine nearly three times more coal than permitted, claims a CBI probe into coal block allocation scam.

The agency, which has incorporated these details in the FIR in the case, has alleged that the Ministry officials in connivance with the company not only overlooked the excess mining but also regularised it.

The case relates to the ongoing probe of the CBI into the coal scam in which it had registered an FIR against the company alleging that instead of adhering to the rate of extraction of coal as provided in the approved Mine Plan, the company had resorted to “illegal excess mining”.

In the FIR, which has now been accessed, the agency has alleged that according to data available “on record” while the approved coal production during 1998-99 to 2002-03 was 1.35 MT, the actual coal production by the Company was 5.9 MT which is an excess of 4.55 MT (nearly 300 per cent above the sanctioned extraction) of coal mined “irregularly”.

Defending its position, JSPL spokesperson claimed that the production schedules mentioned for the first five years in the Mine Plans were based on the guidelines mentioned under MCR 1960 Rule 22 (5) wherein the RQP (Registered Qualified Person) who prepares the mine plan gives a tentative scheme of mining and annual plan for excavation from year to year for five years.

The spokesperson said it may, therefore, be noted that as per the approved capacity of two million tonnes per annum production for the first five years was below the cumulative year wise capacity of 10 MT and hence there was no excess mining as alleged.

The agency has alleged that there was excess coal mining in all the five years against the rate approved in Mine Plan and no prior permission was obtained from the Coal Ministry.

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