Nixing of coal block allocations will end policy paralysis: Parrikar

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the cancellation of coal-block allocations by Supreme Court will set aside the ‘policy paralysis’ which had affected the Centre for a decade. “The policy paralysis faced by the Central government for the last eight to 10 years has been set aside by the SC judgement on the coal blocks.[caption id=“attachment_1729803” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. PTI[/caption] “(It is the) first time that the Central government has approached the SC asking it to bring finality to the issue,” Parrikar said during the ‘Make In India’ programme organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in Panaji. “The decision-making process always requires finality to any pending issue. Now it is up to the Union government how to revive the leases and what is the amount to be fixed (for the same),” he said. The SC order, which has cancelled 214 of the 218 leases given out since 1993, also includes a lease belonging to Goa government in Chhattisgarh, which was supposed to supply coal for power generation. Parrikar said that the Centre can have a different view as far as leases owned by the state governments are concerned. “As far as some leases owned by states like Goa, the Union government may enact a law which might say that leases do not require to follow the procedure. This could be a small amendment to the law,” he said, adding that leases owned by three state governments have been affected by the SC order. The chief minister rejected talk that the scrapping of leases would be a set-back for power generation for the state. “The power generating unit has been already set up in Chhattisgarh and is supplying electricity to Goa. If you give indigenous coal (mined from the leased block) to it (the power plant), then you can get it cheaper, and if you don’t give indigenous coal then the rate can increase by 70 paise,” he said. PTI