The ministry of environment and forests on Wednesday granted forest clearance to the Mahan coal block spread over 1,082 hectares of prime forest in the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh.
This coal block was denied clearance four times by the Forest Advisory Committee, who had cited the presence of a large tribal population dependent on these forests for their livelihood.
The coal mine is a 60:40 joint venture between Essar and Hindalco and while the former company will use the coal to power its thermal power plant, the latter company will use the mineral for its aluminium smelting plant located in the Singrauli district itself.
Allocation of 142 coal blocks between 2004-09 without auctioning has been questioned by Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the government had given an assurance that they would review the entire process of allocation.
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Panel to probe goa mining irregularities
AGE Correspondent
Panaji, Oct. 3
The Goa government on Wednesday formed a panel under Justice Khandep-arkar to verify within 60 days the mining illegalities alleged in the Shah Commission report which was tabled recently before Parliament. The report had stated that almost all iron-ore mining carried out in the state was illegal in terms of expired leases, encroachments and royalty evasions. The government’s decision to form a panel came after MLAs of the ruling party itself put pressure to restart mining. Even CM Manohar Parrik-ar, who has repeatedly said that anyone resorting to illegalities would not be spared, had to promise while addressing a gathering in the mining village of Curchorim that the ban on mining would most probably be lifted by Diwali.