Steel and Mines Minister R K Singh, while replying to an adjournment motion debate on the subject in the Assembly, said the state government had signed MoUs with 29 independent power projects (IPPs) and 50 steel firms for setting up of industries and needed to reserve 10,000 million tons of coal to feed local industries.
The Centre, he said, had allocated coal blocks to certain companies though they were not recommended by the state government.
"The Centre allocated coal blocks to outside companies by ignoring requirement of industries in Odisha. It allocated blocks having reserves of 4956.82 million tons of coal to 13 PSUs of other states while the state industries required 250 million ton of non-coking coal per annum.
"In certain cases, the Centre allocated coal blocks to some companies even before the state made recommendation for them. Therefore, state's recommendations were never binding on Centre for allocation of coal blocks," the minister said.
Claiming that Odisha was the first to demand auction based system for allocation of coal blocks, Singh said, "The Centre had been adopting dilly dallying process instead of going through the bidding process."
Besides, a meeting at Prime Minister's Office on September 11, 2004 had pointed out certain disadvantages of bidding process, he said. MORE
