 "Chhattisgarh government restores e-permits for coal transportation")
The Chhattisgarh government will end the controversial coal transportation system requiring manual generation of no-objection certificate (NOC) that had landed two Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in jail on extortion charges.
In the previous Congress regime, clearance norms for coal transportation from mines to users were changed. In July 2020, then geology and mining department director Sameer Bishnoi had notified the implementation of manual NOC for coal transportation, ending the earlier online process. However, no procedure was circulated in this regard, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that probed the Chhattisgarh coal scam revealed in its investigation.
Last week, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai told the Assembly that the government would now restore the old practice of issuing e-permits.
The chief minister said the offline process led to delays in transportation and promoted corrupt practices. The issuance of e-permit will expedite the coal transportation and will bring a big relief for the corporate, Sai said.
Under the manual system, the transporters had to get the permit from the department, which allegedly resulted in extortion of illegal coal levy. The ED, in its charge sheet, underlined that an illegal levy of ~25 per tonne was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in the state. A cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen was carrying out the extortion, the probe agency alleged. The ED estimated the scam to the tune of over ~450 crore.
Chhattisgarh, a major coal producing state, recorded an output of about 185 million tonnes last year.
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The agency has named 35 people as accused in the coal levy scam. It includes sitting legislator Devendra Yadav of the Congress, suspended IAS officers Sameer Bishnoi and Ranu Sahu, former Chhattisgarh chief minister’s deputy secretary Soumya Chaurasia, alleged kingpin Suryakant Tiwari, Congress leader Ram Gopal Aggarwal, former Kunkuri legislator U D Minj, and others.
Barring Yadav, Aggarwal and Minj, all others, including both the IAS officers, have been arrested.