1st meet of panel on Wed to assess cancelled coal mines' value

The committee, set up for valuation and assessment of the 42 running coal blocks that were deallocated by the Supreme Court recently, will meet for the first time on Wednesday.
"The first meeting of the committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Pratyush Sinha, IAS (Retd) shall be held on November 5...To discuss about the assessment of asset/liability in respect of 42 deallocated/cancelled coal blocks," an official said.
The panel has representatives from the ministries of power, finance, law, coal. It will also have a member from Coal India's mine planning and consultancy firm Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDIL).

The committee will carry out assessment of liabilities associated with the operations of mines.
The official further said that proposed terms of reference of the committee includes, "valuation of assets of each of the coal blocks (37+5)...Land demarcated for afforestation and land for rehabilitation and re-settlement of persons affected by coal mining operations under the relevant law."
The panel shall recommend the value of the assets to be paid for acquisition. It will submit its recommendations by November 10, the official said.
The committee may engage expert/consultants for the purpose of valuation of analysis of coal mines. The committee may consider selecting such experts from the approved panels of public sector banks/insurance companies.

In a major blow to the corporate sector, the Supreme Court had in September quashed allocation of 204 out of 218 coal blocks which were alloted to various companies since 1993.