Supreme Court terms all coal blocks allotted since 1993 as illegal

August 25, 2014

Coal blocksNew Delhi, Aug 25: The Supreme Court today termed the method of allotment of coal blocks between 1993 and 2011 as illegal but stopped short of deallocating the blocks that were awarded during the UPA regime.

The court will take a decision on re-allocation of mines on 1 September, 2014 and will reserve cancellation on a case-by-case basis.

"All allocations were done in an illegal manner and it suffers from vice of arbitrariness," the apext court noted today.

A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha has examined the allegations about alleged irregularities in the allocation of around 194 coal blocks without following proper guidelines and said that the allocation by the screening committee was not fair and transparent.

The coal blocks were alloted in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to private companies and parties bewteen 2004 to March 2011.

However, the SC allowed the coal block allocations to ultra mega power projects to continue but disallowed them from using the coal for any purpose, read commercial exploitation, other than captive consumption.

The apex court said that issue of de-allocation requires further hearing and will take a decision on cancelling 218 coal block allocations on 1 September, 2014. It clarified that more hearings are not required to decide whether coal mining rights should be cancelled or not.

The court also noted that no objective criteria was followed for the allocation process.

The bench, also comprising justices M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph has been monitoring the CBI probe into the scam and special court has been set up to exclusively deal with the prosecution of cases arising out of it in which politicians and businessmen have been named as accused.

The apex court on September 14, 2012 had for the first time issued notice on the PIL filed by advocate M L Sharma and later an NGO, Common Cause and other public spirited persons joined him in the matter which saw CBI facing tough time and government getting pulled up for alleged interference in the probe.

During the hearing, the apex court sought the details of guidelines framed by the Central Government for allocation of coal blocks and examined the process adopted for it.

Lengthy arguments were also advanced as to what were the reasons for "not following the policy of competitive bidding" adopted by the Centre way back in 2004 for allocation of coal blocks.

SC had rejected the contention that the petition based on the CAG report was "premature" as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was then slated to examine about the correctness of allocation.

When the petition was filed in 2012, it was alleged that that the CAG has estimated a huge loss of about Rs 1.64 lakh crores to the country in the allocation of coal blocks.

Shares of Hindalco were down 3.38 percent while Jindal Steel and Power were down 5.6 percent on fears that the court may de-allocate some coal blocks allocated to them or impose huge penalties.

The Supreme Court in 2012 had ordered the setting up of a screening committee to consider proposals from the private sector for captive mining.

As many as 70 coal fields were allocated between 1993 and 2005, 53 were given away in 2006, 52 in 2007, 24 in 2008, 16 in 2009 and one in 2010. Altogether, 216 block were allocated between 1993 and 2010, out of which 24 were taken away at different points in time, effectively leaving the total number of allocated blocks at 194. Of these, 39 were assigned to companies before Manmohan Singh's coalition government first took office in 2004.

A CAG report in 2012 pegged windfall gains to allottees in the coal block allocation process to Rs 1.76 lakh crore. The report caused a storm and was the second big scam unearthed during UPA's second consecutive tenure

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News Network
August 7,2020

Idukki, Aug 7: Several people lost their lives and dozens of tea estate workers are feared trapped under soil in Kerala’s Munnar after torrential rains triggered a massive landslide on today. 

As many as five bodies have been recovered and rescue workers are fighting inclement weather to remove the debris.

According to rescue workers, four lanes of quarters and a church are buried under mud and around 80 people are feared trapped.

Seven people have been rescued so far and shifted to the hospital.

Sources said a portion of Pettimudi came crashing down on the workers colony with a deafening roar in the wee hours of Friday.

As people were sleeping in the quarters, there was little time to escape.

Further, with the Periyavara bridge being washed away, it became all the more difficult for rescue workers to reach the spot.

The construction of a new temporary Periyavara bridge however, is underway.

The bridge was previously destructed during the deluge of August 2018. Later during the north west monsoons and the south west monsoon of 2019, it suffered damage again.

The present bridge, which got damaged on Thursday after Kannimala river levels rose, was constructed under the leadership of Coir fed.

Although a new concrete bridge has been constructed near the temporary bridge in Periyavara, vehicle  movement has not been possible because the authorities are yet to build its approach via road.

The new bridge is to be constructed at a cost of Rs 4.75 crore from Devikulam MLA S Rajendran's fund.

The entire area has been cut off from outside world and communication networks have also crashed.

Teams of Fire and Rescue personnel, NDRF, revenue officials, estate workers and police are struggling to conduct rescue operations.

Meanwhile, District collector H Dhineshan said a team of rescue personnel was sent to Pettymudy after he was briefed about the mishap and search operations to locate and rescue people are underway.

Facilities have been arranged at the hospitals nearby to provide necessary treatment facilities to the people being rescued.

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News Network
May 15,2020

New Delhi, May 15: The World Bank on Friday approved $1 billion 'Accelerating India's COVID-19 Social Protection Response Program' to support the country's efforts for providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the pandemic.

This takes the total commitment from the World Bank towards emergency COVID-19 response in India to $2 billion.

A $1 billion support was announced last month to support India's health sector.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has required governments around the world to introduce social distancing and lockdowns in unprecedented ways, said Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India in a webinar interaction with the media.

These measures, intended to contain the spread of the virus have, however, impacted economies and jobs – especially in the informal sector. India with the world's largest lockdown has not been an exception to this trend, he said.

Of the $1 billion commitment, $550 million will be financed by a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank's concessionary lending arm and $200 million will be a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), with a final maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of five years.

The remaining USD 250 million will be made available after June 30, 2020.

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News Network
April 6,2020

New Delhi, April 6: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that people from every section of the society and age group demonstrated unity on Sunday by responding to the Prime Minister '9 pm-9minute' appeal and strengthened the resolve to the fight against COVID-19.

"We experienced yesterday at 9 pm, the strength of togetherness of 130 crores people of our country," said PM Modi.

He further praised the citizens of the country for their support to the lockdown imposed across India in the wake of coronavirus threat.

"The maturity shown by the people during the lockdown, in a large country like India, is unprecedented. No one could have imagined that the people will abide by this with such obedience and sense of service," said Prime Minister Modi.

"I state it with full responsibility that this is a long war against coronavirus pandemic. But we do not have to get tired or take a rest in this war. We have to emerge victoriously. Today, the country has only one goal and one resolve - to win this war," he added.

The Prime Minister continued saying, that the government has developed an Aarogya Setu app through which one can get information regarding the infected cases around them.

"I request all of you to tell people about it, everyone should make sure that at least 40 others install it. They will get info through it about possibly infected cases around them. In these tough times, we have to ensure this," he added.

The Prime Minister also advised everyone to take necessary preventive measures and stay protected by adopting the mantra of social distancing.

"Always remember, whenever you go out your face should be covered, I say you should keep your face covered even at your homes. The mantra today for the whole world is social distancing and discipline," he added.

Prime Minister Modi addressed the BJP workers and the nation on the occasion of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 40th Foundation Day.

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