The Coal Ministry has issued show-cause notices to six companies, asking why the de-allocation process should not be taken up against them for failure to develop the captive mines allocated to them under a given timeframe. The decision to issue show-cause notices was taken after the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Group, headed by the Additional Secretary (Coal), which review the development of these blocks recently.
The six companies have been asked to show-cause on each milestone separately to the Coal Ministry within 20 days as to why the delay in development of the coal blocks should be deemed as violation of the terms and conditions, and why these blocks should not be de-allocated. The firms that have been slapped show-cause notices are: Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corp for Jogeswar and Khasjogeshwar coal blocks; Yamuna Coal Company for Mara II Mahan coal block; Essar Power for Chakla and Ashok Karkata Central coal blocks; Jharkhand Integrated Power in respect of Kerandari ‘'B’ and ‘C’ coal blocks; Rungta Mines for Bundu coal block; and Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corp for Dongri Tal-II coal block.
In a related development, the Ministry informed Parliament on Tuesday that the Planning Commission was preparing a model concession agreement for Coal India to engage mine developer-cum-operators (MDOs).
Under the MDO model, a coal block owner contracts a third party for the entire mining operations, including land acquisition as well as resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced people.
