Rajasthan is facing a coal crisis as two out of three mines allotted to the Congress-led state in Chhattisgarh, another Congress-led state, have not started functioning since the allotment in 2015. In recent months, Rajasthan claims to have faced severe power shortages due to less availability of coal for its power plants. Rajasthan has now approached the Centre to intervene in the matter. Reportedly, Rajasthan has blamed Chhattisgarh for stalling the projects at two coal blocks that were allocated to the former.
It is noteworthy that Rajasthan has been pushing Chhattisgarh’s forest department for clearance for a long. As both states were unable to find a solution to the problem, Subodh Agarwal, additional chief secretary, Rajasthan, wrote to power and coal secretaries Alok Kumar and Anil Jain. In his letters to the secretaries, he emphasized the need for intervention of the Central Govt to pursue the Chhattisgarh government to take immediate action so that the production from the mines could start.
Gehlot’s letter to Baghel to push clearance
In October 2020, Rajasthan’s CM Ashok Gehlot had written to Chhattisgarh’s CM Bhupesh Baghel, in which he had requested him to speed up the clearance process for the mines. He wrote, “I would like to apprise you that the State has invested more than Rs 40,000 crore in thermal power stations installed in the State. These coal blocks fulfil the majority of coal requirements of current as well as upcoming RVUNL power stations and are essential to ensure fuel security in the form of an uninterrupted supply of coal to produce electricity for the state. I have been informed that the ‘PEKB’ coal block has achieved a peak rated capacity of 15 MTPA and partially fulfils the current coal requirement of RVUNL power stations. However, Parsa and Kente Extension Coal blocks are under various stages of development.”
He further added, “I shall be grateful if you may kindly arrange to direct the concerned State Government officials to expedite the various approvals for early development of ‘Parsa’ and ‘Kente Extension’ coal blocks and continued operation of ‘PEKB’ coal block, enabling RVUNL to meet fuel requirement of the state’s (read Rajasthan) power generating stations and fulfil power requirements of consumers of Rajasthan.”
There are five blocks in question that are Parsa, Parsa East, Kanta Basan and Kante Extension. All these are located in district Sarguja, Chhattisgarh. Out of these five, three were allocated to Rajasthan in 2014. Notably, these blocks come under the Hasdeo Arand forest area and have faced protests by the tribals. Interestingly, the state government has increased the forest cover from 400 square KM reserved for elephants to 2000 square KM. A report in Sunday Guardian suggests that the local tribals have divided into two groups. One is opposing the mines, while the other has submitted its representation in favour of the mine development in the area.
Agarwal added that though the Centre and Ministry of Forest have given Stage-II clearance on October 21, the Chhattisgarh forest department has not provided the necessary permissions to start the Parsa block. For Kanta East and Kanta Basan mines, the administration has not made the required amendment in forest clearance to hand over 1,136 hectares of land as per guidelines of the Union Green Ministry. Public hearings needed for clearance are pending, and Agarwal has sought support from the Centre to get the District Magistrate of Sarjuguda to hold the required hearings.
Rajasthan claimed it had to schedule power cuts in September and October, owing to the coal shortage. The distribution company has increased power tariffs by 22 paise per unit for three months as it had to source additional coal from the market and power from the exchange at a higher price. The peak demand in the state has reached 14,000 MW, and the state is struggling to meet the demand.
The protest against MDO Adani Group
Adani Group, which has been one of the prime targets of “activists”, had won the mining contracts from Rajasthan, which owns the mines in Chhattisgarh, through competitive bidding. Adani Group is a mine developer and operator (MDO). That means the company is not going to mine and sell coal on its own. It is developing the site for Rajasthan.
However, the activists are targeting MDO, causing trouble in getting clearances for the project. It is noteworthy that West Bengal-based PSU Coal India, the largest coal mining firm in the world, has a massive operation in Chhattisgarh. Interestingly, it faced next-to-none opposition from the activists who are raising their voices for the tribal areas and forests. In September 2021, tribals led by activists announced a 300-KM march against Adani Group that started on October 2.
Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, in a public statement, blamed that Congress’s Rahul Gandhi was working with Modi’s Central government against the welfare of the tribals and snatching land from them for the companies like Adani and Birla. It said, “The federal and the state government, instead of protecting the rights of us tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, have joined hands with mining companies and have been working towards devastating our forest and land.” They further demanded the cancellation of all mining projects in the region.
Is there really a shortage of coal?
In reply to RTI submitted by the founder of Hindu IT Cell, Akshit Singh, Coal India Limited, informed that there was no shortage of coal in CIL or for the power sector. In the year 2021, CIL provided additional 5.4 million tonnes of coal compared to last year, where it was around 23 million tonnes. Compared to 2019, CIL provided 15% more coal. CIL further said that they had 1.62 crore tonnes of coal available in stock.
