Coal mines deallocation in most cases challenged in Court:Govt

Government has not taken any decision with regard to coal blocks that were taken back from private companies as the deallocation in most of the cases has been challenged in the courts.

"The government has not taken any decision regarding coal blocks allotted to private companies which have been de-allocated as the deallocation has been challenged in most of the cases in Court of Law," Minister of State for Coal Pratik Prakashbapu Patil informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today.

Patil was replying to a question whether the government has decided to allot some of the coal blocks which were taken back from the private operators to Coal India.

To another question, the Minister replied that the Coal Ministry has circulated 17 coal blocks for allocation to PSUs.

"Coal India is not eligible for 14 coal blocks meant for specified end-use power. However, CIL has been assigned 116 coal blocks and 3 deallocated coal blocks," the he said.

The government had earlier accepted the recommendations of an inter-ministerial panel which suggested deallocation of 13 mines and deduction of bank guarantees of 14 firms.

The government had formed the IMG in July last year to review the progress of coal blocks allocated to firms for captive use.

A total of 58 mines were issued show-cause notices for their failure to develop blocks within stipulated timeline.