Turnaround Plans For 3 Cil Arms

The ministry of coal has identified three areas of development to bring the ailing subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd (CIL) back on their feet. Union minister of state for coal and mines Ravi Shankar Prasad said the steps are raising productivity, adding new mines and checking pilferage and corruption.

Union minister of state for coal and mines Ravi Shankar Prasad said the three subsidiaries -- Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) and Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) -- had caused CIL to post losses to the tune of Rs 1,391 crore, wiping out the profits made by their four counterparts.

Prasad said BCCL, which had never made profits ever since nationalisation, had accumulated losses worth Rs 1260 crore, ECL Rs 917 crore and CCL worth Rs 790 crore.

Prasad said the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA) VI had resulted in a further burden on coal companies. He said even the profits of Western Coalfields (WCL) have slipped from Rs 406 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 28 crore in the subsequent financial year after the wage revision was implemented.

Arrears worth over an estimated Rs 500 crore were settled after the revised wage agreement was implemented pulling the profits of WCL down despite the coal company having registered growth in all other operational parameters such as coal production (35.2 million tonnes), sales realisation (Rs 2,966.64 crore), output per manshift (1.92 tonnes) and coal offtake (35.33 million tonnes).

Prasad echoed Cabinet minister Ram Vilas Paswan's allegation that the coal linkage part of the allocation of coal for non-core sector industries was causing a drain on the resources of the three CIL subsidiaries. He said linkages to the extent of 1500 tonnes of coal for 1100 industries in Bihar and 400 industries in Jharkhand needed investigating.

Prasad said his ministry would be writing to the Industries Department of various states asking them to ascertain whether units shown in the coal linkage plan were actually being run. "The Industries Department would conduct an enquiry into the existence of the factory where linkage has been provided. The Vigilance Department of the coal company would conduct a counter-enquiry and if there are any disputes the case would be referred to the CBI," he said.