TURA/SHILLONG: Following the announcement of coal auction in the state by the government recently, BJP leader from East Garo Hills, Arun N Marak, on Wednesday, sought a clarification from the Metal Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) Ltd in Kolkata, reportedly entrusted with the coal auction.
In his letter to the chairman and managing director of (MSTC) Ltd, Marak sought to know whether or not it would conduct the auction after spot verification to assess the quantity of coal, naming various coal depots and its quantity at each depot.)Marak also questioned if names of owners of seized coal and places of its auctioning would be mentioned and if not, how the bidders would find out.
Raising doubts about the actual amount of extracted coal on the ground, he also sought to know how and by whom the additional amount would be adjusted and how the MSTC would refund the sum after bid amount is deposited to successful bidders and it fails to hand over the auctioned coal.
Govt auction plan
Meanwhile, the Mining and Geology department, in an order, laid out a comprehensive plan for handing over of 32,56,715 metric tonne of extracted coal to Coal India Limited for disposal by auction including the responsibilities of coal stock owners and concerned authority for transportation of coal to designated depot.
The order approved the auction of two-lakh metric tonne in the first phase while each coal stock owner was permitted to auction 5,000 metric tonne of coal. The coal stock owners will be selected through a lottery system for the first phase of auction.
As per the order, East Jaintia Hills has been permitted to auction 75,000 MT, West Khasi Hills and South Garo Hills 50,000 MT each and South West Khasi Hills 25,000 MT.
The Directorate of Mineral Resources, after due verification of identity, will then issue the internal transit pass for transporting the coal from pitheads or storage place to designated depots and assessment report as approved by the Supreme Court.
The coal stock owners will have to transport the coal to the designated depot within 15 days from the date of the issue of pass.
After receiving the coal, the depot in-charge will hand over the receipt indicating quantity and gross calorific value of the coal.
Once the online auction is complete, the state government, after deducting royalty, MEPRF, cess, GST and GST compensation cess, will transfer the remaining amount to the bank account of actual owner of coal stock.
