No decision on disinvestment of Coal India Ltd

New Delhi, July 26 (UNI) The Government has not taken any decision to disinvest its equity in Coal India Limited, Minister of State for Coal Dr Dasari Narayan Rao said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

Responding to another question Mr Rao said the estimated raw coal demand during current year would be 474.18 Million Tonnes (MT) as per the annual plan 2006-07.

He said 432.39 MT is expected to be met from domestic supply and the gap of 41.79 MT will have to be met by imports of 24.19 MT of coking coal for steel sector and 17.60 MT of non-coking coal for power, cement and others sectors.

He said the Government does not import any coal. Since coal is under Open General licence (OGL), the consumers are free to import coal based on their requirment.

The coal is imported to limited indigenous availability of low ash coking and non-coking coal, environmental consideration necessitating use of imported coal and consideration of location specific landed cost.

Mr Rao said in Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), 5947 project affected families (PAFs) have been identified for resettlement by MCL and district administration.

Out of these 3097 have been given the resettlement benefits. The remaining 2850 are under consideration.

In MCL, acquisition of land is a continuous process and land oustees are not displaced until and unless they are suitably rehabilated as per the resettlement and rehabilitation policy of CIL.

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