New Delhi: The Inter-Ministerial Group or the IMG is likely to
submit its report to the coal ministry today. The panel has reviewed the
progress of coal blocks that were allocated to private firms without
auction. Many of these private companies have alleged links to
politicians and their relatives. The Coal Ministry is also preparing a
response to counter the charges that were made by the national auditor
in its report on the coal allocations, say sources."All the coal blocks on agenda for three days (September 6-8) have been reviewed," Zohra Chatterji, Additional Secretary in the Coal Ministry who headed the IMG, said on Saturday.
After submitting the report to the Coal Ministry on Monday, it will be forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office before September 15.
The IMG meeting took place in the backdrop of Comptroller and Auditor General or the CAG estimating undue advantage to private companies to the extent of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore in the absence of auction.
Most of the Monsoon Session of Parliament was washed out with the Opposition, mainly Bharatiya Janata Party, demanding resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the issue. He had held the coal portfolio during UPA-1 when most of these blocks were allocated.
During the three-day IMG meeting, all the 29 allottees gave progress reports of their blocks and several of them said delays in starting the production resulted due to lack of various clearances from different state governments.
Coal block allottees, including Tata Steel, Reliance Power, JSW, Grasim Industries, Kesoram Industries, IST Steel & Power, SKS Ispat and Power, Bihar Sponge Iron, appeared before the panel during IMG's three-day review exercise.
Before the start of the review exercise, the Coal Ministry had said on September 3 that the latest progress as reported by the Coal Controller would also be taken into account by the IMG "before recommending on the action against the coal block allottees".
The IMG has also firmed up the guidelines for proportionate deduction of bank guarantees for failure to achieve milestones for development of the block, it said.
After its presentation on Saturday, IST Steel & Power, in which former Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta's son Gaurav Gupta is a Director, said it did not know why a show- cause notice was sent to it as its coal block in Chhattisgarh is progressing on schedule.
SKS Ispat and Power, in which Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai's brother held the position of "honorary director", also presented its case before the IMG.
Bhushan Steel & Power, which had been allotted Bijahan coal mine in Odisha, said it has already conveyed to the Ministry that the end-use plant for which it was allotted mine in 2006 is already under operation.
"The end use plant is already is completed and we have invested Rs. 22,000 crore in the integrated steel and power plant and we have covered all the major milestone like land acquisition, mining plan approved," an official of Bhushan Steel & Power said.
Another official with Himachal Emta Power Ltd which was allotted Gourangdih ABC coal block along with JSW Steel said due to some technical problem in the block, the company had to revise the mining plan of the block.
An official of the Mukund Steel which was allotted Rajhara North (Central & Eastern) block said there was no delay from the company's side.
(With inputs from PTI)
