5th_APRIL 1ST_2015

NATIONAL AGENDA
Shortly after the bill on mining,
the Rajya Sabha also passed the Coal
Mines (Special Provisions) Bill 2015
on Friday, the last day of the first
half of Parliament's Budget session.
In a repeat of what happened with
the Mines and Minerals (Development
& Regulation) Amendment
Bill 2015, the coal bill was also
favoured by the Trinamool
Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party,
the Biju Janata Dal, the Nationalist
Congress Party, the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha, the Samajwadi Party
and the AIADMK.
The coal bill was passed by a
division vote - 107 in favour and 69
against. The opposition Congress
and the Left voted against the bill
while the Janata Dal-United and the
Rashtriya Janata Dal abstained.
The enactment of the two
laws allows transparent
auction of mines, a process
that has already begun. The
ongoing auction has
attracted aggressive bids,
which will give states about
Rs 2 lakh crore over the life
of the mines that have been
auctioned so far. Further,
the auction process ends the
opaque system of mine
allotment, which drew
sharp criticism from the
Comptroller & Auditor
General and contributed to
the collapse in the authority
and standing of the
Manmohan Singh
government.
T h e C o a l M i n e s ( S p e c i a l
Provisions) Bill, 2014 was intro- allowed for (i) government compaduced
in Lok Sabha on December nies, (ii) companies that the govern-
10, 2014 by the Minister of Coal, Mr. ment had sub-leased the mines to,
Piyush Goyal. It sought to amend and (iii) private companies engaged
the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) in a specified end-use such as
Act, 1973 and the Mines and power, iron and steel, cement and
Minerals (Development and coal washing. The Bill seeks to
Regulation) Act, 1957. The Bill enable private companies to mine
replaces the Coal Mines (Special coal for sale in the open market.
Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 that Key highlights of Bill
was promulgated on October 21,
· The bill has provisions for
2014.
allocation of coal mines through a
Under the Coal Mines (Nationali- transparent bidding process i.e e-
sation) Act, 1973, coal mining was auction.
THE
NATIONALIST 20