Jharkhand CM threatens to stop coal supply if central PSUs don’t clear ‘dues’

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has made public his letter to the union coal ministry, underlining that his repeated consultations with the ministry and Niti Aayog have failed to yield results.

RANCHI: Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has threatened to stop coal supply if the central coal mining PSUs do not clear the “legitimate dues” of the state under different heads, which according to the state government has risen to a whopping ₹1.36 lakh crore.

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has claimed that the central mining PSUs owe the state ₹1.36 lakh crore. (File)

Soren on Saturday morning made public his letter to the union coal ministry, underlining that his repeated consultations with the ministry and Niti Aayog over the issue have failed to yield results.

Earlier on Friday, he said his government is committed to ensure that the state’s rights are honoured, even by force, during his closing remarks of the budget session.

“The central mining PSUs owe the state ₹1.36 lakh crore. I want to assure the house that it is our right and we will make sure we get it. This amount is only going to increase. If the Centre does not give this to us, we have resolved to snatch it. If our rights are not honoured, we will put barricades around coal resources,” Soren said in the assembly.

The chief minister also reminded the House how the Centre in an unprecedented manner has, in the past two years, deducted around ₹3,000 crore from the state consolidated fund with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in order to settle outstanding dues of the state-owned power discom to central power sector PSU, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

In his letter to the union coal minister Prahlad Joshi on March 2, the chief minister shared details of the outstanding dues against Coal India subsidiaries, CCL and BCCL under different heads.

According to the details provided by the chief minister, the Central PSUs collectively owe ₹1,01,142 crore with respect to non-payment of land compensation; ₹32,000 crore in lieu of compensation in the form of price of the mineral so excavated in excess to the environmental clearance limits; and ₹2,900 crore as washed coal royalty dues.