Paswan rules out disinvestment in Coal India

TALCHER: Union Minister for Coal and Mines, Ram Vilas Paswan, has ruled out disinvestment in Coal India. ''''There will not be any disinvestment in Coal India,'''' he told newsmen here yesterday. The minister said there was also no proposal before the Centre to merge the seven subsidiaries of the central sector undertaking into a single company. The Coal Nationalisation (Amendment) Bill now before the Parliament would be withdrawan, Paswan said, adding a single coal price would be formulated soon to check corruption in coal sales procedure. He said those who had lost land due to mining activities of the Mahanadi Coalfields in Orissa would be properly compensated and rehabilitated. If their names were sponsored by the concerned district collector, they would also be given jobs, he said. Assuring the people that MCL would take care of water scarcity problem in Talcher colliery area, the minister said the Orissa government should provide a special grant for the development of the colliery area out of coal royalty received by them. MCL gave more than Rs 200 crore as royalty to the state government annually, he said. Earlier, Paswan inaugurated a railway overbridge built at a cost of Rs 3 crore here.