Government asks states to appoint nodal officer to examine coal mine

NEW DELHI: Taking ahead the process of giving mines to PSUs, the Coal Ministry has asked the Chief Secretaries of states like Bihar and Chhattisgarh to appoint a nodal officer from the concerned government department to evaluate mines to be alloted to public sector firms.

The development follows the Coal Ministry stating earlier this month that it will begin allocating 17 coal blocks to public sector firms by the end of next month.

"It is... requested that a nodal officer from the concerned government department may please be nominated and in this regard the intimation may be sent to the ministry," the Coal Ministry said in a letter to chief secretaries of Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Chhattisgarh.

The letter said the Ministry had in January requested the states to nominate a nodal officer of senior level "with regard to evaluation/examination work of identification/ allocation of coal blocks".

"However, the state government nominated executives/ engineers from the respective State Power Generation company from the state and not from the concerned government department," the Ministry said in the letter.

The government had last year put on offer 14 coal blocks for power sector and three for mining firms.

Initiating the process of allocation of coal mines, the government had in December invited proposals from PSUs for allotting 17 blocks to them, mostly for captive power plants.