Govt. for expediting clearances for eight coal blocks

19 December 2016

The State Government has issued directions to fast- track the clearance process for as many as eight pending coal blocks of Jharkhand at different department levels as well as with the Centre.

A high-level meeting comprising Chief Minister Raghubar Das and senior officials of the Mines and Geology Department with Union Coal Secretary Sushil Kumar was called on Monday that saw issues related to allotment of land and forest clearances propping up.

“Pending forest and environment clearances and availability of land for compensatory afforestation are the two major areas where delay is taking place. It is good that the Centre is interested in making coal blocks allocated to the State operational as quickly as possible and also the State Government that would be getting revenue out of these blocks and other benefits. The CM has directed officials of land revenue and the concerned district administration to expedite things on their part,” said a senior official of Directorate of Mines present in the meeting.

It is also learnt that the Coal Secretary apprised the Chief Minister about steps being taken by the Centre in making in the coal blocks functional. The eight blocks that came for detailed discussion are Panchwara-C, Kathautia, Ganeshpur, Meral, Lohari, Sitanaga, Sahaspur-Jamarpani and Keredari.

“For Panchwara-C, the Deputy Commissioner of Pakur district has been told to present a report and based on that it would be sent to the Centre for its recommendation while proposals for Meral and Sitanaga are being sent. The CM ordered the concerned officials to visit concerned districts for Kathautia and Ganeshpur and sort out mine and revenue related matter soon,” added the official.

Coal production from Keredari would be started as soon as the forest clearance comes. This apart, possibilities of extracting natural gas, methanol, ammonia, urea and polypropylene at Pahari Tola, Amarkonda and Brahmni blocks were also explored in the meeting, attended by Principal Secretary of Mines and Geology Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Mines Commissioner Abu Bakar Siddiqui and Mines Director SI Minj along with CCL CMD Gopal Singh.

In the meeting, the CM also told the CCL to construct toilets under its CSR activities which would add to clean India mission. The CCL would spent one per cent of its CSR fund for this purpose and assist local panchayats into this endeavour.

Source – Daily Pioneer