Competitive bidding for coal by year-end

Faced with allegations of corruption in the allocation of coal blocks during the last few years by the principal opposition party, the UPA-II on Monday announced that in an effort to bring transparency, it was bracing up to introduce the much-delayed competitive bidding for allocation of coal blocks by year-end.

Making this announcement here, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said the government had set in motion the process for identifying coal blocks for bidding in the first round and guidelines for this purpose would also be finalised soon.

Mr. Jaiswal was speaking after a meeting with the various stakeholders of coal industry here to discuss the detailed guidelines of allocation of blocks. The meeting was also attended by representatives of industries, State governments and various central ministries.

However, the Minister expressed concern over the slow progress in mining operations in some of the coal blocks. He said 216 blocks with geological reserves of 50 million tonnes allocated to various public and private companies could contribute valuable coal but regretted that progress in most of the blocks was not encouraging.

He urged the States to set up a coordination committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary to review the progress of allocated coal blocks. The Central Government would provide all possible support in this regard, he said.

Later, an official statement said the meeting discussed various options proposed for the bidding process.

The Coal Minister said in most of the cases, State governments had to play a key role to facilitate land acquisition, environmental clearance including NOC from local panchayats and grant of mining lease.