No need to merge ministries of coal, mines: Narendra Singh Tomar

Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said he is not in favour of merging his ministry with that of coal as both are different and functioning properly.

"No, no... I don't think that at present there is any need for it (merger of coal and mines ministries). Both the ministries are different. Both are functioning properly," he told PTI. Tomar got back the charge of the mines ministry after Sunday's Cabinet reshuffle in which his predecessor Piyush Goyal has been made the railways minister.

On the merger issue, while taking the charge of mines ministry in July last year, Goyal had said: "We will see that (the merger of coal and mines ministries) at an appropriate time. The Prime Minister and senior ministers will take a call on this."

At that time, he had said that the government has merged the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) with the External Affairs Ministry in sync with its broad principle of 'minimum government, maximum governance'.

Tomar, while taking charge yesterday, stressed on the need to expedite the process of auction of mineral blocks and said that a road map for the mining sector will be prepared soon. In his earlier stint, Tomar held the mines portfolio from May 2014 to July 2016.