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Coal Secretary S.K. Srivastava and Coal India Chairman S. Narsing Rao were hauled over the coal by the Standing Committee of Parliament on Coal and Steel over the delay in the cancellation of licences to developers that had not undertaken exploration activity within the set time limit.
The Ministry has sought a week’s time to submit a “detailed reply” to the Committee on the action taken. It had had three months for this exercise.
Sources on the Committee told Business Line that they were informed by Ministry officials that licences of about 30 blocks were cancelled so far and bank guarantees of 14 allottees encashed.
The members wanted to know why the Ministry delayed the cancellation though it empowered to do so. “If the mining did not start in three and half years, the Ministry could have cancelled the licence without a notice. Members, cutting across party lines, questioned this delay,” a member in the panel said. The Ministry said it will present a detailed report on the queries at the next meeting.
‘Cancel 13 mines’
An inter-ministerial panel headed by Additional Secretary at Coal Ministry Zohra Chatterji recommended de-allocation of 13 mines and deduction of bank guarantees of 14 allottees.
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Friday said his Ministry has accepted all the recommendations. “The recommendations have been sent to the Law Ministry. It will review and tell us how to de-allocate and deduct the bank guarantees.”
The inter-ministerial panel also reviewed 31 coal mines allocated to Government companies. However, the panel is yet to arrive at a decision on de-allocation or encashing the bank guarantees of the public sector companies.
BJP alleges corruption
The BJP said there is “massive corruption” in delaying the cancellation. “We made allegations of huge corruption in this deal because allocation of captive coal blocks to private companies free of cost without conducting and inquiry and verification is an economic offence and is a corrupt practice,” BJP MP Hansraj Ahir said in a statement.
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