8 PSUs to surrender 11 coal mines

26 Jul 2022 , 08:53 AM

On Monday, the Parliament was notified that eight public sector corporations had submitted proposals to turn over 11 inactive coal mines as part of an amnesty program. In response to a query in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of Coal Pralhad Joshi stated that since the policy’s issuance, the government has received petitions for the surrender of 11 coal blocks assigned to three Central PSUs and five State PSUs.

According to Joshi, “the Ministry of Coal has established an amnesty scheme in May 2022 offering a one-time window to allottee government corporations to surrender non-operational coal mines without penalty.”

Prior to this, the government has given PSUs permission to give up inactive mines without providing a justification.

The decision, according to the government, would free up a number of coal mines that the PSU allottees were not able to develop or were disinterested in and could be auctioned in accordance with the auction policy.

It had given the designated government firms three months from the date the authorized surrender policy was published to relinquish the coal mines.

45 of the 73 mines assigned to PSUs were still inactive as of December 2021.

The delays were brought on by events outside the control of the allottees, such as problems with peace and order, an increase in forest area over that originally estimated, opposition from landowners to land acquisition, and geological surprises regarding the availability of coal deposits.