VINACHEM

NEW DELHI (Commodity Online) : India coal minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal has directed Coal India Limited (CIL) to review rehabilitation and resettlement policy for acquisition of land for coal mining. He has said that adequate compensation and proper employment should be provided to affected persons. The policy should meet the aspirations of land losers and should provide welfare measures for long term. Taking a review meeting of Government coal companies here Tuesday, the Minister said delay in the acquisition of mining land is a major constraint in the coal production. To overcome this, rehabilitation and resettlement policy should be more attractive and stakeholders friendly.

Reviewing production and off take performance of CIL and its subsidiaries, Jaiswal said that production target of 452 million tonne for the year 2011-12 should be achieved at all cost. He warned laxity on this account would not be tolerated. Similarly, off take targets should be achieved, he stressed.

The Minister directed Chairman of CIL and CMDs of all subsidiary companies to visit mines more frequently to ensure timely completion of the targets. He said he would personally monitor the feedback of such visits in the ministry on monthly basis. The Minister also decided to take performance review of the coal companies now onwards after every two months. Besides senior officials of the ministry, today’s meeting was attended by Chairman of CIL and CMD of Western Coalfield Ltd.(WCL), Central Coalfield Ltd.(CCL), Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd.(MCL), and Eastern Coalfield Ltd.(ECL).