House panel welcomes PMO monitoring coal sector issues

A parliamentary panel today hailed efforts by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to monitor the issues that are holding up coal projects and said bottlenecks should be removed to ensure self-sufficiency of the fuel.
"The Committee is indeed happy to note that major constraints leading to delays in project implementation such as issues related to environmental and forest clearance are being monitored by PMO for expeditious resolution," the Standing Committee on Coal an Steel said in its report.
The report, which was tabled in Parliament today, said: "The Committee wishes to re-emphasise that the reforms process, which has been set in motion with vigour, is further accelerated and bottlenecks and constraints holding up speedy implementation of coal mining projects, are eliminated so that the country attains self-sufficiency in coal production."

Coal India (CIL) and its subsidiaries, the panel said, have achieved a significant improvement in utilisation of the CSR funds during 2013-14 compared with earlier years.
In 2014-15, CIL and its arms spent Rs 329.82 crore against a Budget allocation of Rs 471.65 crore, keeping provision for expenditure towards construction and renovation of school toilets under Swachh Vidayala Abhiyan.