Center denies giving preferential treatment to Gujarat in allocating lignite mines

Central govt refuses to give Gujarat Mineral Development Ltd any preferential treatment in coal/lignite block allocation

Hyderabad: The central government on Friday refused to grant any preferential treatment to Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) Ltd in coal/lignite block allocation.

IT and Industry Minister KT Rama Rao said on Thursday that the Modi government was discriminating against Telangana by applying different rules for Gujarat and Telangana.

He said a large number of lignite mines were allocated to GMDC under the nomination method, and Telangana’s Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) also rejected a similar method.

In response to the minister’s statement on Friday, the Coal Ministry issued a statement saying there were no special rules or scope for granting special treatment to any one country and that allegations of preferential treatment to one country were “baseless and misleading”. Two lignite blocks – the Bharkandam lignite block and the Panandhro Extension lignite block – were allocated to GMDC in 2015, officials said.

Similarly, apart from Tadicherla-I, three coal mining blocks were allocated to Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), including the Naini coal mining block in Odisha in August 2015, the Pengadappa coal mining block in Telangana in December 2016 Block and New Patrapara coal mine block in Odisha in October 2019 In August 2015, coal mines in Telangana were allocated to Telengana State Power Generation Limited. Among them, officials said the Pengadappa and New Patrapara coal blocks were handed over by SCCL under the central government’s amnesty programme.

They claim that the Naini block allocated to SCCL is not yet operational despite all permits being granted by the Center and also claim that no coal/lignite block has been made available through the allocation route following the start of commercial mining to any state or central PSU.