Coal India taking legal view on Rs 20,169 cr penalty notice

Coal India Ltd will legally examine the showcause notices and penalty of Rs 20,169 crore imposed by the Odisha government on its subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) for flouting environment norms. a top company official today said.
"We have to get it examined legally and we have to see what are the legal provisions," CIL Chairman Gopal Singh said on the sidelines of the 7th Asian Mining Congress here.
Earlier this month, the Odisha government under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act had slapped a penalty of Rs 20,169 crore on MCL for violating mining plans, environmental norms and other regulations.

A former MCL top official admitted that over-mining had taken place as there was a lot of demand for coal at the time.
Speaking about the coal supply to power plants, Singh said, "It has never been a question of coal crisis for the power plants. Even on date, we have 29 million tonnes of coal stock at various pit- heads. There is a problem of shifting this stock to power plants. All the transport modes have to be efficient.