Letters have been sent to 11 such central and state government entities owning these mines among themselves
It's not all hunky-dory for the public sector units having operating mines smirking at the misfortune set to befall on private companies facing cancellation of coal blocks en masse by the Supreme Court. As the apex court hears coal block allocation cancellation case on Tuesday, government companies which have been allocated mines and have started production, or likely to produce soon, have been asked by the government to disclose whether they have formed joint ventures (JVs) to operate these mines.
"The ministry has asked us to state whether proper processes were followed in the selection of such JV partners, contractors appointed to operate the mines and the profit being earned by them," an official of a state-owned entity in West Bengal told dna on condition of anonymity.
Letters have been sent to 11 such central and state government entities owning 23 mines among themselves, with some having more than one mine at their end.
These entities are central public sectors units like SAIL, NTPC, Damodar Valley Corp and several state government outfits like West Bengal State Electricity Board, West Bengal Power Dev Corp, West Bengal
Mineral Dev and Trading Corp, Punjab State Electricity Board, Arunachal Pradesh Mineral Dev Corp, Karnataka Power Corp, Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corp and Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam.
Of the 23 mines, 20 are already producing while three including Pakri-Barwadih allocated to NTPC are likely to start operations during the year.
All these entities have been asked to disclose details of their mining projects encompassing information of any joint venture been formed, how the partner was selected and whether it was done through competitive bidding, shareholding in such JVs, and in case the mine is being worked by a Mine Developer and Operator, the profit share of such contractor. "Details even like number of companies that had bid to be selected as joint venture partners have been asked for," the official said.
The information provided would form part of the affidavit filed before the Supreme Court.
With little expertise in coal mining, some of these entities in control of the blocks formed joint venture with private sector to develop them. For instance, the joint venture firm Trans-Damodar Coal Mine Pvt Ltd was formed by West Bengal Mineral Dev Corp with private parties to mine Trans Damodar block allocated in 2005, and is already in the operational stage.
Terms of formation of such JVs would now be put under scrutiny.
In the previous week, the government sought basic details like investment and production figures from the owners of a total of 46 mines, including the six underdeveloped blocks which would be included in the affidavit to be filed before the Supreme Court by Monday.
These include private players like Sasan Power, CESC Hindalco Monnet Ispat, Usha Martin, Electrosteel, SAIL, Jayaswal Neco, Prakash Industries, Sunflag Iron, Sarda Energy among others. Among these 26 allottees, detailed information has been sought again from the public sector units on their joint venture or contractor pacts.
Letters were also sent separately to 15 firms producing lignite blocks, which also will be included in the affidavit.
Of these, nine belonged to entities attached to the Gujarat government, while five was being mined by the state government of Rajasthan and one belonged to VS Lignite Power Pvt Ltd
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