The government proposes to constitute an empowered group of officials along the lines of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) as a single-window mechanism for granting statutory clearances to coal mining projects.
The purpose is to facilitate and expedite approval process and step up coal production in the country.
Though composition of the proposed body is yet to be finalised, sources said the ministries of environment, coal, power and steel as well as concerned state governments would be represented on the panel. The group would periodically take up individual cases referred to it and would take decisions in a time-bound manner. “The proposal on empowered group has been finalised by the coal ministry and would be constituted after getting a nod from the Prime Minister’s Office,” official in the coal ministry said.
The proposal has been mooted by the PMO that is currently addressing various issues pertaining to stepping up coal production in the country and meeting the fuel requirements of the power sector.
Incidentally, the CAG has also recommended that the coal ministry should constitute an empowered group along the lines of FIPB.
While the government has rubbished CAG’s report on allocation of captive coal blocks to companies and termed its calculations of companies getting windfall gains as presumptive, it has supported this key suggestion. The government is also considering giving permanence to the existing inter-ministerial group (IMG) that is currently studying status of captive coal block allocations and giving recommendations to the coal ministry to cancel allocations of companies where the work has not progressed satisfactorily.
After current work is over, the IMG could look into the allocation process of coal blocks and take up the role played by the screening committee at present.
An empowered group will help in increasing coal production by expediting the process of environment and forest clearances for these mining projects, say industry experts.
“Single-window clearance for projects is the need of hour for enhancing domestic coal supplies. If an empowered group is set up with this objective, it would greatly benefit the power sector,” said Dilip Kumar Jena, senior consultant and knowledge manager , mining, PWC.
The new group would not act parallel to the National Investment Board proposed as it would just facilitate coal mining projects in getting requisite clearances. Since members of the ministries and state government representatives would also be in the group, decisions could be taken faster.
