Plan panels Montek suggests alternative to go,no go

But coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal says it will create one more tier of categorisation without any benefit

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In a bid to broker peace between the coal and environment ministries on the go,no go issue,Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the forest areas be split into Category I and Category II,and then considered separately for forest clearances. The suggestion was put forth in the course of the group of ministers meeting on April 9.

Surprisingly though,the proposal did not find favour with the coal ministry,government sources said. Arguing that it was needless to create another tier,the ministry said all proposals be routed through the Forest Advisory Committee FAC of the environment ministry. The ministry said this is not desirable since the FAC is a statutory body for recommending proposals on forest diversion.

All proposals without reference to the categories as suggested by the MoEF should be considered for forest clearances as per the procedures in vogue, said a source present in the GoM.

The go,no go categorisation has rendered 203 coal blocks,with estimated reserves of 660 million tonnes,sterile or out of bounds for coal companies.

Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told The Indian Express that his ministry does not agree with the definition of go, no go and has been demanding a review by involving all concerned stakeholders.

The MoEFs approach in deciding wildlife corridors has affected some captive blocks where adequate investments have already been made,a coal ministry official added.

In some cases,where the forests are 70 km apart and there are big townships and villages,many mines are operational and it was taking enormous time to define an animal corridor.

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In countries like Australia and South Africa,tall fencings have been made to guide wild animals directing their path for migration. Such measures can be adopted in India, the coal ministry official said.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said even if the go,no go policy was made operational,it should be done with prospective effect. Supporting this,commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma told the GoM that any policy to regulate forest areas in coal mining should be prospective.

According to the coal ministry,it takes anywhere between 10 years and 15 years to ground a coal mining project once potential occurrence of coal resources is established through regional exploration. The coal blocks under consideration are those which have been projectised based on the countrys perspective plans for coal production prepared in line with the rising demand from the power sector spanning 11th and 12th Plan periods.