Maha govt seeks centre’s intervention for Chhattisgarh coal block nod

Maharashtra has asked for the coal ministry’s involvement in obtaining forest approval for the Chhattisgarh government coal block allocated to its power stations in the Vidarbha area, becoming the second state to knock on the government's doors over mining limitations in a state that has the nation's third-largest coal deposits.

Last week, MAHAGENCO (Maharashtra State Power Generation Company) MD Sanjay Khandare wrote to coal secretary Anil Jain, saying the utility had met the requirements for forest diversion for the Gare Palma-II coal block in October last year, but the state government was yet to send its recommendation for Stage-I forest approval to the Government.

Khandare urged the ministry to interfere in the matter as early approval was necessary to begin production from the block, situated in the Raipur district of Chhattisgarh, by the October 2023 deadline. It is the second instance of setbacks being met by coal block owners in Chhattisgarh.

Rajasthan was the first to urge the Centre as the Chhattisgarh government stalled approvals for commencing two new mines and ramping up production from two others allotted to Rajasthan.

As both the states have the Congress in office, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot escalated the issue to party president Sonia Gandhi after his letters to Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel seeking prompt action went ignored. The Gare Palma-II block was granted in August 2015 to MAHAGENCO for fuelling the Koradi, Chandrapur-8 power facilities, the largest production complex in the state’s Vidarbha area.

The block has a peak yearly production capacity of more than 23 million tonnes. MAHAGENCO had applied for forest approval in 2016 for 214 hectares of forest land. However, the application could not be processed because of the unavailability of government land for compensatory afforestation.

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