Review meet for power, coal sectors by PM postponed

The crucial meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to resolve inter-ministerial differences relating to environment clearances for the coal and power projects has been postponed to next week.

While no official reason was given for rescheduling the meeting, it is being speculated that the impending Cabinet reshuffle could be the reason for the same.

Besides reviewing the performances of the key sectors like coal and power, the meeting was expected to show a way out of the tussle between the environment ministry and the ministries of coal and power on the contentious issue of green clearances for the infrastructure projects.

"It has been postponed. Now it is likely to be held next Tuesday," Sources in the Coal Ministry said.

The meeting, which has been put off for the fourth time since May, was also to deliberate on a strategy for the terminal year of the 11th Five-Year Plan for these key infrastructure sectors.

According to government data, the performance of both the power and coal sectors have not been satisfactory so far in the current Plan period and the reason is often attributed by many to the non-availability of coal in adequate quantities.

However, both the coal and power ministries have squarely put the blame on the Jairam Ramesh-led environment ministry for delaying approvals, citing green norms, thereby affecting key projects in their sectors.

According to an estimate made by the Planning Commission, the demand-supply gap for coal in the ongoing year, which is also the terminal year of current Five-Year Plan, has been assessed at 142 million tonne with domestic availability of only 554 million tonne against the requirement of 696 million tonne.

Coal ministry is of the view that 'no-go' policy of Environment ministry, under which mining in 203 coal blocks is not allowed, has been the major reason for the increase in coal shortages.

According to the ministry, the 'no go' mining issue has affected a potential production of 660 million tonne of coal per annum.

Coal Minister Jaiswal had earlier said that Prime Minister Singh was concerned over the economic growth being hampered by the bottlenecks in the coal production.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Coal, headed by Finance Minister is already on the job to find a common ground between the MoEF on the one hand and coal, power and steel ministries on the other.

According to the Planning Commission, the country's coal shortage may soar to 200 million tonne by 2017 against 142 million tonne by 2012. The demand for dry fossil fuel by 2016-17 has been projected at 1,000 MT against a production of 800 million tonne.