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Journalism of Courage
Questioning the very utility of the Coal Ministrys proposal to auction coal blocks,the mining industry today said the country should not target short-term gains by obtaining higher revenues through auction but focus on the long-term gains through early and efficient coal production. It also warned that auctioning could lead to financially strong companies cornering a majority of the blocks despite having virtually no proficiency in mining.
In a memorandum submitted to coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal,the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries FIMI,the apex body of miners,opposed the move to auction coal blocks for captive mining. Auctioning of coal blocks is illogical as it would drive up the cost of coal in the country unnecessarily and may render the block economically unviable,resulting in lost years before the block is forfeited. This is because of the very nature of exploration geology and methods of reserve estimation whereby the actual coal reserve may fall short of the declared tonnage despite its fullest exploration. Further,auctioning of coal blocks may lead to the coal blocks being purchased by financially strong parties,who may have little or no expertise in coal mining, a top FIMI official told The Indian Express.
FIMI has also proposed that land acquisition be facilitated to achieve the national priority of early coal production from allocated blocks. Towards this end,FIMI has suggested amendment of the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act Section 41 to make its provisions applicable to all block allocatees even from the private sector or the joint sector Public Private Partnership. As regards speeding up Statutory and Environmental Clearances,FIMI suggested an Inter-Ministerial Task Force approach to take up the matter on a war footing to radically re-engineer and simplify the current cumbersome processes which are very time consuming.
