The Orissa government has hit out at the Centre for the latter’s step-motherly treatment in allocation of coal blocks, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
The state government alleged that despite being the second largest coal bearing state in the country with a reserve of 61.99 billion tonnes, Orissa has been given a raw deal by the Centre.
“All the major coal bearing states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have got coal reserve allocations for commercial use to the extent of 19 per cent of the total allotted quantity for each state. However, Orissa has got coal-reserve allocation for only 7.67 per cent of the total allotted quantity for commercial use”, said Ashokm Dalwai, secretary, steel and mines department of the Orissa government.
He further said that the PSUs of other states have been allotted 29.39 per cent of the total allotted quantity of coal from the coal fields of Orissa, where as the PSUs of Orissa have been allotted with only 16.10 pr cent of the total allotted quantity of coal reserve in the coal fields of Orissa.
Moreover, none of the PSUs of Orissa has been allocated any coal block in any other state of the country, he alleged.
Dalwai pointed out that the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) had submitted applications in 2007 for allotment of coal blocks for supply of coal for 5000 MW capacity power plant needing coal reserve of 1,150 million tonnes (mt)).
However, the actual allocation for these two PSUs was only 500 mt of coal reserves in two separate coal blocks.
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Dalwai also pointed out the deficiencies in the coal blocks allotted to the Orissa government.
“The Utkal-D coal block alloted to OMC for commercial use with a reserve of 145.6 mt is too small for planning any major world class project. The coal seams of the Nuagaon-Telisahi coal block allotted to OMC along with the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation are not well-developed and unsuitable for economic viability:, he said.