Centre rollbacks notification on coal mine auction in Delta region

CHENNAI: In another development, the Centre has announced to withdraw notification on coal mine auction in protected agricultural lands in Tamil Nadu.

Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Parliamentary affairs, Coals & Mines taking to Twitter wrote, "In spirit of cooperative federalism & keeping in mind interest of people of TN, I have directed to exclude them from auction."

Earlier the Union government had launched the seventh round of commercial coal auctions in a bid to increase the availability of dry fuel in the country. A total of 106 coal mines were put on the block in the latest round of auctions. Of the total mines offered, 61 blocks are partially explored and 45 mines are fully explored. As many as 95 non-coking coal mines, 10 lignite mines and one coking coal mine are being offered in the latest round of auction.

Condemning the same, Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Centre to exclude the Delta region from the coal bidding process to protect the interests of the farmers in the region and called it a wasteful exercise as the State government was not consulted.

BJP state president K Annamalai in his letter to Joshi mentioned, "The Ministry of Coal released a tender to auction coal mines for Sales of Coal/Lignite. The tender document called for the auction of coal reserves in the East of Sethiathope, Michaelpatti & Vadaseri. In the year 2020, the State Government of Tamil Nadu passed the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Act 2020, which bans hydrocarbon extraction in 8 districts (Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagappattinam, Pudukottai, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Karur and Tiruchy) in Tamil Nadu. These blocks called for auction in the Tender released by the Ministry of Coal are in the Protected Agricultural Zone. This law was enacted due to widescale farmers' protests in the Delta region of Tamil Nadu after the DMK government in 2011 signed up with Great Eastern Energy Corporation for the exploration & later extraction of Coal bed methane from Manargudi. Though the East of Sethiathope, Michaelpatti & Vadaseri blocks were explored for coal reserves in the erstwhile UPA regime, the farmers in the Delta region have unanimously voiced against coal/ coalbed methane extraction from their region as it could affect the quality of groundwater and in turn, could affect agriculture in the Delta region."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Coal signed agreements for 28 coal mines auctioned under the sixth round of auction. The cumulative PRC (peak rated capacity) of the 28 coal mines auctioned under the previous round is 74 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), and these mines are expected to generate annual revenue of Rs 14,497 crore calculated at PRC of these coal mines. Upon operationalisation, these mines are expected to generate employment for 1 lakh people.