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The Coal Mines (Nationalsation) Act, 1973 was amended in 1976 and in 1993 to allow captive coal mining for certain sectors. Companies engaged in iron and steel production, power generation and other end users as may be notified by the Central Government from time to time were allowed to do coal mining for captive consumption. Under the powers conferred by the 1993 Amendment, production of cement has been notified as an end use for captive mining. A Screening Committee headed by Secretary (Coal) has been formed in the Coal Ministry to consider requests of the applicant companies and decides allocation of coal blocks on merits. This selection process for allocation of coal block is proposed to be substituted by the competitive bidding process of selection.
As for coal linkage to core sector consumers such as the power plant, cement plant and sponge iron plants, the following three linkage committees are functioning in the Ministry of Coal :
· Standing Committee (Long Term): Grants coal linkage on long term basis to power and cement plants.
· Standing Linkage Committee (Short Term): Grants coal linkage on quarterly basis to power plants and cement plants.
· Standing Linkage Committee for Sponge Iron Units and Ferro Alloys Units: This Committee considers the applications for grant of coal linkage on long term basis to sponge iron units. The Committee was constituted by Ministry of Steel which has now been transferred to Ministry of Coal.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Coal & Mines, Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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