Coal India to legally examine show cause notices served to subsidiary

Kolkata, Nov 8 (IANS) Coal India is going to "legally" examine the show cause notices issued by the Odisha government to its subsidiary - Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd - carrying penalty of Rs 20,169 crore for violating mining plans, environmental norms and other regulations, a top company official said on Wednesday.

"We have to get it examined legally and we have to see what are the legal provisions," Coal India Chairman Gopal Singh said on the sidelines of the 7th Asian Mining Congress here.

The respective deputy directors of mines in the Talcher, Rourkela and Sambalpur circles had issued 24 notices on October 31 to the officers of mining projects of Mahanadi Coalfields. The subsidiary received those on November 1.

"The show cause notices have been issued for a total amount of Rs 20,169 crore towards compensation under section 21(5) of the Mines & Mineral Development Regulations (MMDR) Act, 1957, for production in violation of mining plan, Environmental Protection Act 1986, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981...," Coal India on Monday had said in a regulatory filing.

The miner is looking to diversify into metals mining. "We have just decided on these diversifications two-three months ago and we are still working on the modalities. We hope to ready the modalities in the next few months," he said.

On 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."

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