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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Call for declaring coal an essential commodity in India

Thursday, 03 Mar 2011 By TOI

A parliamentary committee has asked the government to include coal in the Essential Commodities Act to control its pilferage while asking the ministry of coal to prepare a comprehensive document having details of human lives lost, environmental degradation and resultant loss to the exchequer due to illegal mining.

Coal was removed from the ECA earlier through an amendment. Now, the committee wants Centre to control its production, supply and distribution to stop illegal mining and pilferage.

A study carried out by the Jharkhand government with the help of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, estimated loss to coal companies to the tune of INR 106 crore annually and to the exchequer of about INR 34 crore a year.

In a report given to Parliament, the parliamentary standing committee on coal and steel has said a joint inter-state intelligence and action force should be constituted to combat the problem of illegal mining. A task force in each state under the supervision of the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police of the concerned area has also been mooted.

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