Published On : Fri, Aug 12th, 2016

Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Ministry of Coal Meets

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Nagpur:
A meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Coal was held in the city on August 12, 2016 evening for reviewing the “Implementation of Mine closure Plans of Coal India Limited (CIL)”. Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal chaired the meeting.

In his opening remarks, Goyal informed the Members that considering the closure mines as an important activity, the Ministry has undertaken special plan for studying each coal mine for preparing its closure plan. In the plan, special emphasis has been placed on efficient usage of water for the purposes of drinking, irrigation after appropriate treatment and ground water recharge.

On the occasion, Director (Technical) CIL, made a detailed presentation giving highlights of achievements of CIL during 2015 -16. The presentation also gave an overview of guidelines, major initiatives & activities being undertaken by CIL and its subsidiaries under Mine closure Plan with special focus on environment protection, land reclamation and water management. Members were also informed that Mine closure Plans (MCPs) are integral part of mining plans. Accordingly, Ministry had brought out detailed set of guidelines initially on 27.8.2009 and subsequently these were amended on 11.1.2012 and 7.1.2013. It was explained that Centre Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) prepares Mine Closure Plans for all CIL mines. CIL has identified 476 mines for closure and MCPs of 445 mines have been approved till July 31, 2016. As per guidelines, Rs 4387.60 crore has been deposited in escrow account by CIL.

Intervening the discussion, the Minister informed the Members that to further strengthen the process, CIL is further engaging Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) for carrying out various studies . CIL is signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Forest Research Institute shortly for third party audit of progress and appropriateness of MCPs, environmental audit and forestry issues.

During discussions, all Members appreciated the efforts being undertaken by the Ministry and CIL in this direction especially third party inspection/audit. Members suggested that steps being undertaken by the Nevyeli Lignite Corporation in land reclamation and water conservation after closure of mine need to be replicated by the CIL and its subsidiaries.

Goyal assured Members that their valuable suggestions would be adopted by the Ministry and CIL. The meeting was attended by Dr Bharti D Shyal, Hari Manjhi, Kamalbhan Singh Marabi, Kariya Munda, Lakhan Lal Sahu, Laxmi Narayan Yadav, Midhun Reddy, Rajesh Verma, Ram Tahal Choudhary, Ravindra Kumar Pandey, Santosh Kumar, Vijay Kumar Hansdak, Vishnu Dayal Ram from Lok Sabha and Dr Anil Kumar Sahani from Rajya Sabha.

The Secretary Anil Swarup, the Chairman cum Managing Director & Directors of CIL and senior officials of Ministry of Coal also attended the meeting.