During a high-level meeting with Union Coal Secretary Anil Shwarup in Ranchi on Wednesday, Chief Minister Raghubar Das stressed on the essentiality of reallocation of coal blocks in the State considering the production and usage of power in Jharkhand. The CM said that the ongoing plants having linkages with coal blocks must be supported to expedite their work.
In the meeting where power status and requirement of the State and coal blocks’ present situation and allocation troubles were discussed in details, the Chief Minister said that despite huge reserves of coal, the State was in darkness and it was very important to find out the problem areas as well as possible solutions. He also instructed the Damodar Valley Corporation to facilitate uninterrupted power supply to the State.
The Union Coal Secretary expressed the Centre’s willingness to help the State in every possible manner. He suggested that the State Government send proposals for coal block allocation after carefully studying the norms so that the Centre considers the same. He asked the officials to send the proposals to Coal Ministry before March-April. Swarup also said that the State Government needs to find solutions to problems on its own and the Centre will consider them. Both the CM and the Coal Secretary approved a proposal that a coordination committee meeting, headed by Chief Secretary, should take place at fixed intervals so that the related stakeholders could be reviewed and decisions could be taken. This would enable reviewing of State Government, CCl, BCCl and other coal companies.
The Coal Secretary also instructed coal companies in the State to spend one per cent out of the two per cent of the mandatory CSR spending on the recommendation of the CM. State Mining Department Secretary Arun brought the issue of the dues of Rs150 crore of coal companies, on which a detailed meeting will be convened on January 12 attended by representatives of coal firms and the State Government. During the meeting, CM Raghubar Das said that the total requirement of electricity in Jharkhand was about 2,200 MW and the capacity of the State’s resources is around 1,300 out of which only 550 MW is being supplied. Das said that it was important to finish the work of power plants in the set time frame. He said that the NTPC should build new plants instead of repairing the old ones and the Government was ready to cooperate for the same.
The Jharia Masterplan was also discussed in the crucial meeting where Das said that the transfer of land linked to the plan must be dealt with at the earliest. He instructed the officials to review the plan separately and act swiftly to execute it. Apart from the Union Coal Secretary and the CM, representatives of Union Energy Ministry, Chief Secretary Sajal Chakraverty, Principal Secretary Finance Rajbala Verma, Mines Secretary Arun, representatives of BCCl, CCl, JUVNl, NTPC, Railways, SAIl and Deputy Commissioner of Dhanbad were also present in the meeting.
Earlier, the Union Coal Secretary visited CCl headquarters in Ranchi and offered a floral tribute to coal martyrs. He also visited and inspected Samadhan Kendra (Single Window Grievance redressal cell), and inaugurated the ‘Online portal of Samadhan Kendra’. Gopal Singh, CMD,CCl, Director (Fin) DK Ghosh, CVO Arbind Prasad, CGMs/GMs, HODs, officers and employees were present during the occasion.