Commercialization of coal requires an hour for the nation to reduce the outflow of valuable foreign exchange and the liberalization of the sector will have no impact on Coal India, which has sufficient reserves, said Mr. B N Shukla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).
In his appeal to the striking employees and their leadership to resume operations, Mr Shukla said “at the time when the country is facing COVID-19 pandemic and threat from neighboring countries, we are required to stay united in the interest of the nation.”
The CMD said that producing one billion tons of coal for the country by 2023-24 was an uphill task for Coal India, and private players would supplement Coal India’s energy deficit production.
Moreover, the commercialization of coal mining in India needs an hour to rapidly increase coal production in order to meet the growing energy requirements, Mr. Shukla said, stressing that no government company has shown interest in taking up the offered coal blocks because they are very difficult to mine.
Coal Ministry also clarified that Coal India is fully committed to achieving 1,000 million tons of dry fuel production by 2023-24, while India is importing about 250 million tonnes, including 40 to 50 million tons of coking coal, to meet its energy demand and pay Rs 1.5 lakh crore in foreign currency, as well as losing DMF, royalty and employment to local people.
The Ministry also clarified that there were no plans to privatize Coal India or any of its subsidiaries. Furthermore, no coal block allocated to Coal India is given to any private player.
In view of these facts, the CMD stated that “there is no reason to justify this strike and that doing so will help Coal India to produce enough coal to reduce imports.”
Recalling that the Government of Odisha had declared coal mining to be an essential service under the Authority, the CMD urged its employees to return to work without further delay.
Mining operations were paralyzed today following a 3-day strike by the Central Trade Unions against the commercialization of coal.
