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Centre likely to cancel 41 coal block licences
Centre likely to cancel 41 coal block licences, Coal blocks allocation case, Coal blocks. The Congress-led UPA government has made known its intent to cancel 41 licences for mining coal blocks. This can happen as early as within a month.
New Delhi: The Congress-led UPA government has made known its intent to cancel 41 licences for mining coal blocks. This can happen as early as within a month.
The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that the 41 companies had been given notices, asking why their allocations should not be cancelled. The private companies, involved in the coal blocks allocation case, have been given three weeks time to respond to the notice by the Centre. The government will have one week time after that to study the company's responses, before proceeding in the matter.
The Centre also sought permission from the apex court to put forward to the Home Ministry the proposal for issuance of Letters Rogatory to foreign countries in its probe into coal scam. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting on Monday discussed the criteria for de-allocation of coal block licenses in the coal blocks allocation scam. The CCEA meeting came in the wake of the CBI filing a fresh Status Report in the coal scam before Supreme Court on Monday.
An Inter-Ministerial Group had earlier reviewed and decided to de-allocate 218 coal blocks. Notices were issued to 47 blocks but a decision is still pending on 29 cases. The Attorney General had recommended that the Supreme Court set up clear-cut criteria for de-allocation of coal blocks.
During a previous hearing in the case, the Centre had admitted before the Supreme Court that something went wrong with the coal blocks allocation and that it could have been done in a more refined manner. Attorney-General G E Vahanvati had told a three-judge bench headed by Justice R M Lodha, “We took decision in good faith but something turned out to be wrong. In hindsight, we can say something has gone wrong and some correction is required to be done.” Vahanvati's response came after the Bench observed that the exercise could have been done in a "far better manner.” The Attorney-General had in September 2013 submitted that coal blocks allocation was merely a letter of intent and does not confer any right to the companies over the natural resource which is decided by the State Government.
He had contended that decision of coal blocks allocation to companies is only the first stage and firms get rights over coal only when they start mining for which they have to take various clearances. The mining States of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, however, had earlier told the apex court that coal blocks allocation was entirely controlled and regulated by the Centre and they only played a minimal role in the whole exercise.
