Bill replacing coal ordinance to be brought in Parliament this week

NEW DELHI: A bill seeking to replace the coal blocks allocation ordinance that unveiled the NDA government's ambitious coal sector reforms will be brought in Parliament this week.

Introduction as well as consideration and passage of two bills to replace two ordinances pertaining to coal blocks allocation and textile undertakings is on the government agenda this week.

The coal blocks allocation ordinance was brought in the wake of the Supreme Court decision cancelling 214 coal blocks in September.

The government promulgated Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 in October to facilitate auctioning of the cancelled coal blocks.

Incidentally, the coal ordinance has been opposed by the central trade unions, including RSS-affiliated trade union Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).

BMS as also AITUC, CITU, HMS and INTUC have jointly opposed the government's proposal to allow private players to mine coal and sell it in the open market, a right till now reserved with the state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL).

The ordinance has also come under attack from the Left parties.

The bill seeking to replace Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Laws (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2014 is being introduced in Lok Sabha tomorrow and will also be moved for consideration immediately thereafter.

The ordinance was brought to shield the National Textile Corporation from rent control laws that have been used to evict its sick textile units from prime land in several cities.