CITU opposes bidding for coal blocks

NEW DELHI: The Government's decision to allow competitive bidding for coal blocks on Tuesday drew protest from Left labour union CITU, which threatened to oppose the "back door privatisation" move.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, CITU President M K Pandhe feared the decision would violate the Coal Nationalisation Act and made it clear that it would be opposed "tooth and nail" by employees of Coal India.

"Any such move of back door privatisation by the Government may lead to serious deterioration in the industrial relation in the coal sector," he said, a day after a Group of Ministers cleared the proposal for competitive bidding.

"I am constrained to invite your attention to the gross violation of Coal Nationalisation Act, 1970 inherant in such decision, which would be opposed tooth and nail by employees of Coal India," he said in the letter.

Pandhe urged the prime minister to ensure that the Coal Nationalisation Act is not diluted in any manner through "some executive fiat".

With the GoM clearing the proposal, the Coal Ministry is expected to start allocation of coal blocks through competitive bidding instead of getting an Inter-Ministerial Screening Committee to earmark these.

The GoM clearance comes at a time when major trade unions are planning to firm up their stand on the alleged misuse of captive coal mines by private miners.