Naveen Patnaik opposes Centre’s move to allot 4 Odisha coal blocks to WCL

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government and the Centre are at loggerheads over the allocation of coal blocks in the state s chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday opposed the coal ministry’s move to allocate four mines to the Western Coalfields Limited (WCL).
Rampia, Dip side of Rampia, Ghogarpalli and Dip extension of Ghogarpalli are the four coal mines, which the ministry has planned to allot to WCL instead of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), which has already been operating in the state. Both the MCL and the CIL are the subsidiary units of Coal India Limited, a Maharatna central PSU.

In a letter to Union coal minister Piyush Goyal, Patnaik said operationalisation of coal mines requires close coordination with the local administration for land acquisition, rehabilitation and settlement of project-affected families.

“The WCL with its headquarters at Nagpur in Maharashtra may not be in a position to effectively tackle the issues, which are critical to the smooth operationalisation of coal mines,” Naveen said.

The chief minister urged Goyal to re-examine the ministry’s decision and to allocate the four blocks to MCL that has achieved a record production of more than 143 million tonnes of coal during 2017-18 financial year.

“With a more focused approach towards rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families, it (MCL) can grow further in partnership with the local communities,” Naveen said.

In case, MCL is unable to handle more coal mines in view of its existing commitments, Naveen proposed that the CIL may consider for another subsidiary for Talcher Coalfields so that the MCL may further scale up its operations in the Ib Valley region (Jharsuguda and Sundargarh).

The MCL has 33 coal mines leases in Odisha of which 19 are operational. It targets to scale up its annual production to 250 million tonne by 2020, said an official source.

Naveen’s protest to the Centre’s move assumes significance as the Union coal minister recently alleged that the Centre is not able to increase coal production in Odisha due to lack of support from the state government. Goyal alleged that he did not get the kind of support from the state government which he should have got.

Goyal also alleged harassment by local BJD MLAs that creates hindrance in smooth production of coal in Talcher area, one of the largest coal fields in the country.