Indicating that the much-discussed proposal for recast of Coal India Ltd. (CIL) is now on the backburner, Union Minister for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, has asserted that enhancing coal supplies and sorting out environmental issues are the more pressing problems on hand.
Of the 19.5 million tonnes shortfall between target and achievement in respect of coal production in 2013-14, at least 12.5 million tonnes was lost due to lack of environmental clearances.
In a brief interaction with the press after a marathon four-hour meeting with top officials of CIL and its seven subsidiaries, Mr. Goyal said in response to a question on recast that “Coal India is a company which has seven subsidiaries ... that is the status of CIL and continues to be so. I think the more pressing problem before us is enhancing coal supplies sorting out environmental issues.”
The minister said that these (problems over coal supplies and environmental issues) were “a legacy of inaction, ineptitude and policy paralysis that the sector has faced over many years.”
InteractionHe said that even during the course of Thursday’s meeting, an interaction had been set up with the Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar where some of the suggestions thrown up would be sorted out.
Emphasising on the need to ramp up production, the minister said that this had become necessary as production had not matched demand in the last 4-5 years. “We are looking how to incentivise the employees of CIL to further enhance production,” he said.
Mr. Goyal said that improving coal quality, enhancing synergy between the coal and the power sector and improving practices of the coal sector were priority areas.
While CIL accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s coal production, 75 per cent of its output goes to the power sector.
