Coal allocations to be axed

The Supreme Court was informed by the Centre that it might cancel 41 coal block allocations made between 1993 and 2009 that were yet to be mined. The Government states that in the case of 61 other allocations, companies had been asked to remove deficiencies within four to six weeks. The Supreme Court pulled up the Centre for its 'laxity' in de-allocating coal blocks of companies that held them for long without obtaining the necessary clearances and questioned the working of the screening committee, which purportedly gave preference to certain private firms during 2007-08.