The government has warned steel makers JSW Steel,Bhushan Power & Steel and Jai Balaji of action if they do not "take steps" to develop the captive mine jointly alloted to them in Jharkhand. In a notice issued to the three firms on November 16 for delay in developing Jharkhand's Rohne coal block though joint venture,the Coal Ministry said,"As per the milestone,the company should have obtained approval for its Mine Plan,prior approval of Central Government for Mining Lease,applied for Forest Clearance,Environment Management Plan clearance. The company has (also) not mentioned any progress in land acquisition," it added. However,the (JV) company has submitted bank guarantee and approval of mine plan has also been conveyed,the notice added. "You are advised to remove aforesaid shortcomings and take steps to develop the coal block without any further delay,failing which the ministry could be constrained to take action as deemed appropriate in the matter," the ministry warned. JSW Spokesperson could not be reached for comments. However,a company source confirmed the receipt of the "advisory" notice and said the delay is at the state's end. "We are going ahead of schedule in all the activities from our side. The process of granting of mining lease and forest clearance is stalled at the state government end. We submitted our proposals last year," he said. JSW has sent its reply to the Coal Ministry on the advisory,the official added. Earlier,Jharkhand Mines and Industries Secretary N N Sinha had said the state government has decided not to issue any mining related lease during the pendency of the President Rule there. The Rohne coal block,which was allotted jointly to the three firms in June 2008,has minable reserves of 210 MT. The three companies entered into a JV in which JSW Steel has over 69 per cent share on the coal output,Bhushan Power and Steel 24 per cent and Jai Balaji over 7 per cent. The government is in process of sending such notices to 40 companies mainly from the steel,power and cement sectors who are sitting idle on such blocks. Steel makers ArcelorMittal and SAIL and aluminium producer Nalco have already been threatened of deallocation of their captive coal blocks. Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has asked the ministry to expedite the process of deallocation of such blocks to weed out non-serious players who have been allotted such reserves.
