Ramesh, Jaiswal shake hands on coal-mining policy

Following a direction from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal and Environment minister Jairam Ramesh today almost reached a compromise on Ramesh's controversial Go-No Go policy for coal mining.

Updated on: Feb 9, 2011, 01:10:33 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Following a direction from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal and Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday almost reached a compromise on Ramesh's controversial Go-No Go policy for coal mining.

The two ministries are expected to announce a compromise on Thursday and environment clearance to at least five coal mines of Coal India Limited, which fall in go areas.

After a joint exercise with Coal ministry, Ramesh in 2010 had listed about 35 % of forest area in 17 coal mining zones as no go for mining, resulting in protest by Jaiswal. The Coal ministry had also circulated a Cabinet note seeking to reduce No Go areas to just 10 % of the forestland.

In what is being seen as a climbdown, Ramesh has agreed to allow coal mining in no go areas in Eastern Coal Fields and in Mahanadhi area of Orissa, following a direction from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week.

Go No Go controversy

In 2010, Environment ministry categorized 35 % of coal bearing area in forests as no go.

It meant that 17 major projects of Coal India would not get environment clearance.

Coal ministry opposed the proposal and circulated a Cabinet note saying only 10 % of forestland should fall under the No Go areas.

Ramesh refused to budge saying only five percent additional forestland could be provided for mining.

Last week PM Manmohan Singh called Ramesh and Shriprakash Jaiswal and asked them to sort out differences between the GoM meets.

Today's meeting was result of that direction.

The PM had also asked the two ministers to resolve the issues before the first meeting of 12 member Group of Ministers on environment clearance headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee. The environment ministry has also been asked to revisit its go-no go policy for coal mining.

Jaiswal said they have arrived at a consensus on many issues and are hopeful to resolve majority of them before the GoM on coal. “We are meeting again on Thursday to resolve some pending issues,” Ramesh told HT.

Coal India, which accounts for 80 % of India's coal production, in its red herring prospectus for its IPO in 2010 had said it will get environment clearance for coal mining in some of the no go areas by end of current financial year.

Under the compromise, the ministry will give conditional clearances and Coal India will have to take additional steps to minimise impact of mining on local environment and forests.

The meeting between the two ministers, which lasted for over an hour, is seen as a move to meet the commitment to shareholders of Coal India.

According to the Coal Ministry's estimates, the widening demand-supply gap of the fossil fuel is likely to touch 142 million tonnes next fiscal from projected 84 million tonnes in the current fiscal.

"Both the ministries would come out with decisions that would be in the interest of the country, its industrialization and augment its power generation capacity," Jaiswal said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.