Govt calls meeting on revision in CIL production targets

Close on the heels of Coal India (CIL) revising its production target for FY12 downward to at least 440 million tonnes (MT) from 452 MT in the Annual Plan, the Coal Ministry has called a meeting next week on the issue, where it is likely to pull up the PSU's top brass.

"The review meeting to be chaired by Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal will be held on December 23," an official in the Coal Ministry said.

The meeting -- to be attended by officials of the Coal Ministry, Chairman and Managing Director N C Jha and the CMDs of CIL subsidiaries -- was earlier scheduled for December 22. However, as Jaiswal was not in the city, the meeting had to be postponed to December 23, the official said.

The CIL brass was pulled up by the minister at the last review meeting in October for missing its first quarter target.

The PSU had blamed early rains and inclement weather in the eastern region for playing spoilsport in achieving its 98.7 MT coal production target for the first quarter.

In addition, a plethora of problems, like delays in the grant of green clearances for its projects, hurt the state-run firm's production, which fell short of the April-June target by 2.4 MT.

Last week, CIL had said it has lowered its production target for the ongoing financial year to at least 440 million tonnes (MT) from the estimate of 452 MT in its annual plan.

"We have kept (production target) of at least 440 million tonnes," Jha had said.

The chairman had cited various reasons like heavy rainfall, strikes and delays in the grant of forestry and environmental clearances to coal projects for the downward revision in the production target.