A proposal from the Environment Ministry to provide cluster clearances to coal mines and keeping only one public hearing for these reserves in order to expedite supply of dry fuel to power plants, seems to have created confusion within the Coal Ministry. While Shastri Bhavan officials cited ignorance about any such move, industry sources indicated that the proposed system, even if it materialises, will be time consuming and could lead to further delays and complications.
The Environment Ministry is learnt to have decided to provide cluster clearances to mines belonging to Coal India ltd (CIl) by bracketing a number of reserves into several batches, a move which could boost the State-owned entity’s production and will improve supplies to thermal power plants. Further to this, it has suggested single public hearing for environmental clearance of the reserves.
However, Coal Ministry sources told The Pioneer that no such proposal has been conveyed to them formally and more significantly industry sources claimed that doing so will not be that easy as even in one area, mines are located at quite a distance from each other. Therefore, if a single public hearing is held with locals staying near Mine ‘A’, then locals belonging to the same area but staying some distance away near Mine ‘B’ could feel insecure whether their concerns were taken up in the hearing or not.
Therefore, according to industry sources aware of the developments, having one public hearing will not suffice and for several mines situated in a common area, more than one hearing will be required to be done in order to address concerns of the people of that entire region.
Sources further said at the same time that, cluster clearance, even if it happens at a later stage, is possible only in case of old mines as in the case of new mines the normal procedure itself - of giving environmental and forest clearances - takes a lot of time.
In order to give green clearances to a single coal mine, the individual activities around its neighbouring areas, reclamation of land and many such procedures need to be completed. Therefore, industry sources pointed out that cluster clearance to a group of mines is possible only when they are existing reserves (or old mines), as in such an instance the entire aforementioned process will not be required to be repeated.
Though the Environment Ministry is learnt to have acted on the cluster clearance mechanism on the suggestion of the Coal Ministry, officials from the latter claimed ignorance about any such proposal.
In 2011, the then Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had decided to give green clearances to coal mines, especially those located in densely forested areas, on a case to case basis.
Since then, the CIl mines have been gradually getting clearances, which has led to an improvement in the company’s production. However, owing to the time consumed under the case to case clearance system, the demand-supply chain of CIl continues to suffer from time to time, also leading to the ongoing shortage of coal supply to NTPC plants.
In such a scenario, whether the proposal of giving cluster clearances to coal mines actually materialises or not, with depend on the deliberations between the Coal and Environment Ministries.