Govt set to bring ordinance on cancelled coal blocks

The Union Cabinet on Monday met to discuss coal sector reforms.

"Cabinet has approved ordinance on acquisition of deallocated coal mines," Union Finance Minister Arun Jailtey said in a press conference on Monday.

He said e-auction of coal for private sector, cement and steel companies wil take place.

Jaitley said auction of coal mines to be concluded in the next 3 to 4 months.

Slamming the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government,  Jailtey said: :The entire mess the UPA has left since 2005 onwards will be cleaned up in the next for months."

The Supreme Court on Wednesday nullified the allocation of 214 of the 218 coal blocks, leased out to companies illegally by the Centre since 1993.

In a bold judgement, only four blocks' allocation- which are crucial for big power projects and given to companies like SAIL- were not cancelled.

Thus most of the private firms which were allotted coal blocks by the previous Congress-led UPA, as well as the NDA, between 1993 and 2011, have lost rights over the mines.

The top court on August 25 had held that all coal blocks allocations since 1993 by various regimes at the Centre were illegally and arbitrarily done, sources said.

A bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha had said in its 163-page verdict: “To sum up, the entire allocation of coal block as per recommendations made by the Screening Committee from July 14, 1993 in 36 meetings and the allocation through the government dispensation route suffers from the vice of arbitrariness and legal flaws.”