Indian National Mining Federation (INMF) has agreed to oppose the decision of the center to allow commercial coal mining.
“…to start with, it will…join the ‘Protest Day’ on May 22 by central trade unions. Thereafter, the central trade unions in the coal sector will be consulted to decide the future course of action after the 4th phase of lockdown ends,” INMF said in a statement.
S Q Zama, Secretary General INMF said: “Allotment of coal blocks to private companies and even to government companies under Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 did not take off except for a few exceptions.
“The government had planned for 1 billion tone production for CIL by 2020 which also crashed not because of lack of workers response, but governments’ own lack of scientific and professional approach.”
According to him, the government failed to visualize low demand for power over the next few years as evidenced by a decline in non-coking coal imports. CIL has remained without any budgetary assistance since 1991-1992 and increased its productivity amid a significant reduction in the workforce.
“To our estimation, there is less possibility of foreign direct investment due to the bleak future of coal due to the Paris Accord - 2015 against climate change,” he said.
