KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - India’s allocation of coal blocks between 1999 and 2010 was a “most non transparent procedure and the entire process of selection by a Selection Committee seems to have favoured certain companies”, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel said in a report released on Thursday.

The clouds over governmental initiatives to address the current coal crisis in the country appear increasingly ominous and the disputes in the mining sector are making for political fodder in an election year. In the report, the committee said, “the Selection Committee allotting the mines seems to have favoured certain companies without going into the merits of the company’s track record and preparedness to set up end use projects”.

“The majority of the coal blocks have not been developed even after 13 to 15 years after allotment,” the report said.

“The natural resources and state largesse were distributed to a few fortunates for their own benefit without any transparent system and a total abuse of power by the government,” the report said, putting in dock a government already facing criminal investigations under Supreme Court supervision for alleged discretionary and illegal allotment of the natural resources.

The committee noted that of the 195 coal blocks allotted to various companies for captive use by downstream projects between 1999 and 2010, only 35 had been developed to date.

Instead of the government identifying coal blocks, assessing production potential and screening the capabilities of applicants, the report said that applicants identified coal blocks, approached the Coal Ministry and had the application considered by a Screening Committee, comprising representatives of the Coal, Steel and Power Ministries, as well as provincial governments in which the block was located.

This failure of government policy for allocating coal blocks to private companies for captive use, was largely owing to the Review Committee not undertaking periodic review and progress in developing the allotted mines, the report said, without commenting further, as the matter was before the courts.

The Criminal Bureau of Investigations was currently probing the irregularities in allotment and the case was being heard before the Supreme Court. The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel added further fuel to the coal controversy, as between 2006 to 2009, the Coal Ministry had been directly under the authority of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Meanwhile, last week, government’s attempt to kick-start mining in at least a few of the allotted coal blocks not under investigations, or those cleared by the investigating agency, was scuttled by the Supreme Court, which directed that no mining could commence in any of the blocks until the court delivered its verdict on the case.