New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday urged the Jharkhand government to bring in operation all coal blocks allocated to it, at the earliest, to ensure more availability of coal.
It also assured the state government that it can revisit the issue of deallocation of Banhardih coal block, which was allocated to the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) in 2006.
"Once we will receive the representation from JSEB, we will revisit the issue in the light of today`s meeting," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters after Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda called on him here.
The Coal Ministry had cancelled the allotment of Banhardih coal block to JSEB on May 14, saying that the state electricity board is "not serious" about development of the block.
However, explaining the reasons for the delay, Munda said in the meeting that the block could not be developed due to various issues like delay in environment clearance, JSEB not
being able to find a joint venture partner among others, a Coal Ministry official said.
The Jharkhand CM, accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Hemant Soren and other senior officials, also discussed the issue of availability of coal and status of various coal
mining projects in the state with Coal Minister Jaiswal, an official statement said.
The statement added that the state government was asked by the ministry to provide more security to facilitate loading of coal at night on normal working days as in some areas large
quantity of pithead coal needs immediate dispatch.
It was also pointed out to the state that local forest clearance for some of the projects of public sector coal companies are pending for a long time and needs to be expedited, the statement said.
PTI
