Monday, November 29, 1999

Competitive bidding of coal blocks comes up for nod

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Seeking to ensure greater transparency and objectivity in allocation of coal blocks, the UPA government is likely to seek Parliament's approval tomorrow for competitive bidding to allocate blocks primarily for the private sector.The new system would replace the existing process of allocating coal blocks through an inter-ministerial screening committee. The coal ministry had earlier moved a proposal to amend the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act for introducing competitive bidding for allocation of blocks, but the government later decided to amend the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act 1957 to make competitive bidding applicable to coal. With the demand for coal shooting up, the number of applications from both public and private sector has gone up, making the allocation difficult and vulnerable to criticism.Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had earlier told The Indian Express that his ministry had decided to allocate fresh blocks only through the proposed process primarily because it wanted only those companies to get the blocks that had the requisite capability to develop them. "Our experience has been that numerous blocks were given to those who did not have the required capital-intensive technology to extract coal," Jaiswal said.

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