A high-powered meeting called by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to review the crisis on the coal availability situation has been postponed to May 19.The meeting, originally scheduled for May 16, comes at a time when the country is facing the prospect of over 40,000 MW of new coal-fired capacity being stranded for want of fuel, amid inter-Ministry squabbles on the reasons for the flagging domestic output.
The Union Power Ministry has blamed Coal India Ltd (CIL) for failing to achieve the promised production levels. CIL has, in turn, has cited environmental issues as a major deterrent, with delays attributed to problems in obtaining environment and forest clearances and the CEPI (Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index) guidelines hitting production from existing mines.The Union Coal Minister, the Power Minister and the Steel Minister are among those slated to attend the meeting. A Group of Ministers is already working on issues concerning the impact of environmental and forest clearances on the growth of the coal mining sector.
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