BHUBANESWAR: Against the backdrop of power crisis in the State with shortage of coal being cited as one of the key reasons, the Union Coal Ministry on Saturday sought the cooperation of the State Government in facilitating smooth coal production. “We discussed how to sort out problems relating to land acquisition, environment clearance, law and order situation and rehabilitation and resettlement (R & R),” Union Coal Secretary Alok Perti told mediapersons after a high-level meeting with State Government officials. With a sharp fall in coal production in the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) region and delay in operationalisation of a large number of coal blocks allotted to it, a Central team headed by Perti came for a discussion with the State Government to facilitate smooth coal production. To a query on frequent agitations by the local people over the R & R policy, Perti said Coal India subsidiaries, including MCL, have been given freedom to choose one of the three R & R policies available. Besides the Central government R & R policy, the State Government and the CIL have their own R & R policies, he said and added that MCL is mostly adopting the State Government’s policy. Apart from R & R issue, the Central team requested the State Government to assist the coal companies in getting early forest clearance and overcome other hurdles. Law and order issues were also discussed at the meeting. Chief Secretary B K Patnaik made a suggestion for monitoring land acquisition and R & R issues at the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) level. He said this would help overcome many hurdles in coal production. The Coal Ministry is trying its best to increase the coal output in different parts of the country, including Orissa, he said. The Coal Secretary also indicated that there was no proposal for raising the price of coal in near future. “The Ministry does not take decision on the price of coal. However, nothing of that sort is happening now,” he said. On delay in the revision of coal royalty, he said coal-bearing states give their views on royalty enhancement. However, the Union Cabinet takes the final decision on the issue, he said. The Union Coal Secretary visited the State after the recent tour of Union Minister of State for Coal Pratik Patil and CIL Chairman NC Jha. The CIL chairman and MCL Chairman and Managing Director AN Sahay were present at the media conference.
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