Government decides to deallocate one more mine

This follows the recommendation made by Inter-Ministerial group (IMG) which is scrutinising 29 blocks awarded to the private parties out of the total 58 which were given show cause notices for delays in development and some of these find mention in CAG report.

With this, the government has approved cancellation of licenses of five coal blocks, out of a total seven recommended by the IMG so far.

"I have approved the IMG's recommendations given on Friday and will take a call on others," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told PTI ahead of the meeting of the panel, scheduled this afternoon.

The IMG, on Friday had recommended deallocation of the Gourangdih ABC mine, given jointly to JSW Steel and Himachal EMTA, in 2009.

The block has 61.54 million tonnes (MT) of extractable reserves and the coal from the mine was meant to be used for a power project.

The block finds mention in the CAG report as well. The government auditor had said the allottees of the block, located in West Bengal, might have accrued undue benefit to the tune of Rs 1,818 crore.