No modification needed in Bill for coal auction: Parl panel

A parliamentary panel on Wednesday recommended "no modification" in the existing legislation for auction of coal mines though its report contained dissident notes on not protecting tribal rights and other issues from five members including three from Congress.

"The Committee recommends enactment of the legislation without any modification," the 19-member Select Committee to examine the Coal Mines (Special Provision) Bill, 2015, headed by Anil Madhav Dave (BJP) said in its report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. The panel referred passage of the Bill without any change.

The Bill that seek to replace the Ordinance issued by the government was passed by Lok Sabha but had to be referred to the Rajya Sabha Select Committee. The dissenting notes come from Digvijaya Singh, P Bhattacharya and Rajeev Shukla (all Cong), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and K N Balagopal (CPI-M). "With a deep sense of disappointment, I am submitting my dissent note.

Despite unanimity on the issue of labour dues forest rights of the tribals and forest dwellers and environment clearance and inherent rights of the state in the constitution, the Select Committee has failed to accept the suggested amendments to the Bill," a dissent note from Singh said.

Terming as "inadequate" the 7 days' time to the Committee for examining the "Bill with such far reaching implications", Singh said the panel "could not hear the stakeholders whose lives would be impacted...which is fundamental duty of the Select Committee". He said the panel did not take views of state governments and Ministries like Labour, Forest and Environment, Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj.

He demanded that a proviso be added "to optimise the value of the coal block, Forest and Environment Ministry clearances should be obtained by Central and state Government". Also the note contained that "the state government must certify that all the rights under the Forest Rights Act have been settled before the auction of the coal blocks'.

He also suggested including provisions like that the company "may carry on coal mining operations in India in any form for own consumption only for specified end use and not for any other purpose, with the prospecting license or mining lease, as the case may be".