Change in ministers, GoM on coal meet postponed

With ministerial changes in environment and law and justice portfolios, the Group of Ministers' meeting scheduled for tomorrow to resolve issues hurting the coal production has been postponed.

"The meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on coal has been postponed due to changes in the portfolios," sources said. New date has not yet been finalised.

Of the 12-member GoM, portfolios of Jairam Ramesh and Veerappa Moily have been changed. While Ramesh has been replaced by Jayanthi Natrajan, Salman Khursheed is the new Law Minister.

Ramesh who has been elevated and shifted to Rural Development, had taken tough stand against allowing mining in the 'no-go' areas with dense forests.

Sources said the new ministers of Environment and Law will need some time to understand the complexities of the inter-ministerial tussle blocking the coal production.

Six coal projects allotted to firms like ADAG, Essar and the Aditya Birla Group for fuelling their thermal power plants, which have been stalled due to pending environmental approvals, were to be discussed at the meeting of the GoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The GoM, which was constituted in February, has met thrice without reaching any consensus.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest in 2009 had categorised 203 coal blocks as 'no go' mining zones.