Ministerial panel for coal blocks
The group could be headed by coal ministry
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-27 01:40 GMT
New Delhi: The Centre is likely to set up an inter-ministerial group to decided on coal blocks which have been cancelled by the Supreme Court. The group could be headed by an additional secretary in the coal ministry and is likely have representatives from power and steel ministries. It is crucial for the government to quickly decided on the future course, so that cancellation of coal blocks does not have severe impact on the Indian economy.
The Supreme Court has cancelled 214 out of 218 coal licences given to private companies since 1993, after declaring licence allocation process as arbitrary and illegal. The cancelled licences include 46 producing or near-production blocks, and are owned largely by power and steel sector companies. The producing mines will be allowed to continue operations until March 2015, at which point they will be handed back to Coal India.
“The potential long-term effects of the decision on the wider power and steel sectors will depend largely on how quickly the government proceeds with re-auctioning the licences,” said rating agency Fitch on Friday.
It said that this could lead to more efficient development of these coal blocks in the long term should the new process go quickly.