The Association of Coal Executives has sought the intervention of the Center to give green clearance to CIL ‘s open-cast Tikok (OCP) project in the Saleki Proposed Reserve Forest in Assam, as the block mining activity has been halted in the absence of the same. Production is expected to be important in the wake of Coal India (CIL), which accounts for more than 80 percent of domestic coal output, looking at one billion tons of production to minimize imports of dry fuel for blending purposes by domestic coal-fired power plants in the current fiscal year.
“With pain, All India Association of Coal Executives (AIACE) wishes to highlight the issues prevailing at Tikok OCP of North Eastern Coalfields (NEC) under Coal India Ltd and urge your kind intervention for its uninterrupted operation,” P K Singh Rathor, Principal General Secretary of the association, said in a letter to Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi.
However, due to a variety of reasons, the production and morale of the CIL workforce operating in this region is at risk. Literally, production from Tikok OCP has stopped, and there seems to be no way out of it to resume expansion of mine, the letter said.
“If by any means, it is not possible to start the closed mine by awarding approval, the executives and staff of NEC should be given the option for transfer from there to any other production companies of CIL,” AIACE said.
Operations in the project have been suspended since October 2019 under the Assam Forestry Department Directive and are “waiting for phase II clearance” from the Centre, a statement released by NEC had already been confirmed.
NEC applied to the Assam Government for forest clearance in 2003 and a further request was made in 2012 by the miner, adding that the in-principle approval was granted by the Center with 28 conditions.
One of the conditions for approval was to obtain approval from the National Wildlife Board (NBWL).
“The final clearance, which is stage-II, for this project, will be granted by the Union Ministry after fulfilment of certain conditions by the project proponent, NEC, and only then extraction of coal can be done,” an official had said.
In the letter to the minister AIACE said, CIL had a lease of 30 years, which expired in favour of the Assam government in 2003.
“CIL continued its operations, presumably with the consent of the Assam government and apparently in the national interest. To continue mining operations after expiry of lease in 2003, CIL moved for needful clearances in 2003.
“It again repeated it in 2012 and requested for regularising the operations up to 2012 and simultaneously sought for prior approval from 2012 onwards up to 2023. The approval process is still continuing and is yet to meet its end,” the letter said. The Assam forest department had earlier slapped a penalty of Rs 43.25 crore on Coal India Ltd for carrying out “illegal mining” inside the reserve forest for 16 years from 2003.
