THE Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2014 is aimed at de-nationalising the entire coal sector and doing away with the historic Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973. The Bill is not in the interest of the national economy, but in the interest of private corporate entities, both domestic and foreign, as it allows them to play with the most crucial natural resource owned by the people of India for their private gains. The Coal Mines (Special Provision) Bill, 2014 was preceded by promulgation of an Ordinance by the Government of India envisaging auctioning of de-allocated coal blocks (as per direction of the Supreme Court) to private sector not only for captive use but also for commercial mining or for any other purpose. This exposes the philistine motive of the government to finally de-nationalise the coal sector and set off the process of wholesale privatisation of the coal sector. As such, the implementation of the Supreme Court order did no way require an Ordinance. Cancellation and de-allocation of coal blocks of the former allottees could have been done by an executive order. Even auctioning of the de-allocated coal blocks could have been done by an executive order as had been done in the case of 3G-spectrum. But the government has taken the Ordinance route only to facilitate allocation of coal blocks to private sector and non-Coal India entities for “sale or any other purpose” simultaneously amending the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act, 1973 and the Mines and Mineral Development Act, 1957 through the Ordinance itself which has been subsequently converted into Bill and introduced in Parliament. The government tried to camouflage this ill-motive of privatisation and de-nationalisation by projecting as if the Ordinance was indispensable for implementation of the Supreme Court order. This is far from truth and reflects the fraudulent design of the government to befool the people and oblige their corporate bosses, both domestic and foreign. The Bill has been passed by Lok Sabha without the scrutiny and examination by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in violation of the standard parliamentary practice and procedures. Just by their numerical majority in Lok Sabha, the Modi government bulldozed all parliamentary and democratic procedures to get the Coal Bill passed. Similar bulldozing design had also been applied to pass the Apprenticeship Amendment Bill, Regional Rural Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2014, Payment & Settlement Systems (Amendment) Bill and 13 others in Lok Sabha without referring them to Parliamentary Standing Committees. This is a novel example of engineering tyranny to undermine the democratic process. And such fascistic design did not stop here. After failing to get the Coal Bill and the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill passed in Rajya Sabha, the Modi government has again promulgated ordinance on both the matters in their anxiety to expedite de-nationalisation of coal sector and set in process the “foreignisation” and privatisation of the insurance sector. This must be resisted and resistance needs to be mounted by the people and the working class on the ground throughout the country to defeat the fascistic design to put the resources of the country on sale. The government is required to appropriately respond to the judgment of the Supreme Court cancelling the 200 plus coal block allocations to private hands in a scandalous manner. But such response in taking back the cancelled coal blocks from the concerned allottees for specified end-use should in no way set a retrograde process of giving back the coal blocks to the private agencies again through auction-route and further widen their rights to mine coal not only for end-use but also for any other purpose including commercial mining. This sets in the de-nationalisation process and does in no way flows logically from the Supreme Court order. Moreover, the provisions of allotting coal blocks to joint venture companies in the Ordinance and the Bill are in violation of the observations made in the Supreme Court judgment vide para 137 and 153. In fact, the Supreme Court’s corrective action on the coal block allocation scam is being sought to be consciously utilised to set in motion the process of another scam involving the same private corporate interests. In the rightness of things, the de-allocated coal blocks as per the Supreme Court order should be given back to Coal India Ltd for mining and Coal India should be made the only nodal agency to supply coal to the nation. The government of the day is arguing that this step has been taken to harness the fullest potential of this natural resource by rationalising the coal mining and also for helping the MSMEs and by allowing private sector a bigger space in coal mining for commercial purpose such rationalisation and full utilisation of coal can be achieved. While doing so, Coal India Ltd. is put on the dock and it is being blamed for its alleged failure to feed our power sector in the main and other coal using sector. Such allegations are far from truth. Rather, the government has been trying to make out a story with active support from the corporate-owned media to justify this highly detrimental venture for de-nationalisation of the coal sector and this has become urgent for them in view of US President Barack Obama’s visit to India to prove that “UPA could not do that, but we have done, Sir”. But our great country does not need such blessings of Obama. We need protection of our natural resources from plunder by private entities and its usage for our development and hence we must oppose the same tooth and nail. Let us examine the government’s claim that allowing private sector for commercial mining would lead to better, efficient and rational harnessing of our coal resources in the face of alleged failure of Coal India Ltd to meet such parameters. By amending the Coal Nationalisation Act in 1993, coal mining rights for captive use were allowed to major coal using industries including those in private sector. At that time also the Left had opposed such amendment and forecast that the experiment is destined to fail to serve the declared purpose, particularly in respect of private sector. Since then as many as 200 plus mines were handed over to private operators for captive use in a span of 20 years and hardly 20 per cent of them or may be less than that could be made operational. Private and state sectors’ contribution to coal production through captive-mine route is only 46 million tonnes in 2013-14 despite having 44.44 billion coal reserves (40 percent of total proven exploitable reserves) at their command, where as Coal India Ltd and Singareni Colliery Company Ltd. (SCCL) accounted for more than ten times the production by the private sector at 513 million tones with 60 percent exploitable coal reserves in their command. This has exposed the proven incompetence and evil motive of the private sector and there can be absolutely no logic for repeating the same experiment by giving more concessions including right to commercial mining for “sale or any other purpose” except for favouring the corporate donors to political exchequer. The problem (?) with Coal India Ltd or SCCL is that they can only contribute to the national exchequer and have been creditably doing so but cannot donate to political funds. At least half of such blocks have been taken away from Coal India and gifted to private parties. And comparably, Coal India Ltd and SCCL, which had brought about a revolutionary change in the country’s coal production scenario and also in safety and conservation of this vital natural resources since the pre-nationalisation days, are being calculatedly sought to be weakened in all fronts even in terms of coal reserves in its direct command by successive governments at the centre. Yet, Coal India has more than doubled its production in 20 years catering to more than 80 per cent requirements of coal in the country in the face of private allottees failing to operate even 20 per cent of the allotted mines. And what is the ground reality vis-à-vis allegation of failure of Coal India to produce enough to justify the privatisation and de-nationalisation move? Although the assessed capacity of Coal India is 572 million tonnes annually as on 1-04-2014, the actual production has been 462.42 million tonnes in 2013-14 against the target of 482 million tonnes. And as per a report prepared and submitted by the Ministry of Coal to the Parliamentary Committee, the reasons of such underutilisation of capacity and missing the target are basically law and order problem in certain coal bearing states, delay in forest and environmental clearance, adverse geo-mining conditions in certain mines, restriction in supply of explosive under the Ammonium Nitrate Rule, 2012 made effective from January 2014, delay in physical possession of land, etc. and the shortfall in off-take of coal from the end of customer/consumer agencies particularly by power utilities and inadequate transport infrastructure, particularly by railway — all creating problem of storage and unmanageable accumulation of produced coal at pit-head and thereby affecting the continuity of production. Which one of these reasons can be attributable to Coal India’s failure? None. Further, at least 150 ongoing projects of Rs 45,281 crore aimed at substantially augmenting the production by Coal India are still languishing at various stages for approval by the government. A huge number of proposals for expansion of coal mining area/new projects, presented by Coal India, has been facing roadblock owing to environmental and forestry clearance. Fourty-four proposals envisaging increase in capacity/production by 206 million tones per year are awaiting for long for environmental clearance. Also suffering from the inordinate delay in clearance and notification by various levels of the government are 192 forestry proposals involving an area of 31,695 hectares, 94 project proposals involving 19,988.33 hectares of land. Also pending since long is the take-off of at least three rail-link projects with capital investment by Coal India owing to again pendency of approval by various central government agencies and land acquisition. Despite all these bottlenecks for augmentation of Coal India’s capacity and production performance, Coal India Ltd could maintain its growth in productivity at the rate of above 5.3 percent annually for the past three years. It could fulfil fully its obligation and commitment under the Fuel Supply Agreements between Coal India and power utilities at a moderated price as directed by the government under Presidential directives. Instead of addressing the problems of augmenting coal production and expansion of mining acreage for Coal India Ltd, as listed by the Ministry itself in its report to various parliamentary committees which are mostly to be tackled by the government agencies only, the government of the day has preferred to make those problems and roadblocks for Coal India Ltd to continue as instrumental to give it a bad name and make a plea for privatisation and de-nationalisation for serving the interests of private corporate entities whose incompetence to mine coal already stands proven and exposed during the span of the past 20 years. None of the promises made by this Bill is going to be fulfilled. If Coal India fails to manage the problems of delay in various clearances and approvals to remove the roadblocks for expansion in production and mining acreage, can the private sector manage the same except through bribery or similar irregular means. Will the government invite and promote such a situation? Another deceptive plea is being made for de-nationalisation and private sectors’ entry into commercial mining is import of coal to the tune of 22 percent of domestic consumption. About 130 million tonnes of coal was imported in 2013-14 which is projected to be 170 million tonnes in the current year. Of this, 50 million tonnes is coking coal required for steel making through blast furnace route. And the country does not have enough of coking coal for steel making. Secondly, another 50 million tonnes is imported for use in coast-based power plants owned by Tata, Mundra and Adani, etc. located far away from the coal mines where usage of imported coal make economic sense for them in terms of avoiding transportation cost. The government has endorsed such use of imported coal as a policy decision. Further the Government of India (MOEF) has issued a notification which bars use of coal having 34 percent ash content or more in plants established in critically polluted areas or established more than 1,000 km away from coal pit for addressing problems of ash-pollution and ash-storage. Compliance of this notification also makes import of coal for blending absolutely necessary. So the import of coal is not a sin per se necessitated by the policy regime and in fact it cannot be attributed to Coal India’s failure and showcased as a plea to justify denationalisation. And the whole concept of private sector means efficiency and higher production is altogether unfounded so far as coal mining experience for the past two decades is concerned. This is nothing but a grand game of de-nationalisation and privatisation of the coal sector and is destined to flourish bigger corruption by the system on the one hand and slavery for the mass of the people and coal workers in particular on the other, besides severely undermining national interests and jeopardising conservation of vital natural resources by way of irresponsible mining, illegal mining, widespread contractorisation, violation of safety and labour standards which are all synonymous to private sector operations. And the coal sector is organically linked with electricity sector as well and along with coal sector privatisation active design is afoot to further increase the private sector’s control on the electricity sector and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2014 has already been introduced in Parliament. And against such move the electricity sector unions have been planning for united countrywide struggle. Privatisation means doing away with reservations for SCs and STs as well. This will mean undermining the social and environmental concerns also and uprooting the tribal population in case of mining in dense forest areas as evident in auction plan under the Ordinance and the Bill as per the schedules. Of the total coal reserves in the country, only 15 percent falls in the dense forest area and as per geological reports, coal in dense forest areas are mostly available on the surface and do not require much digging thereby making coal extraction easier and less costly. And that is why coal in dense forest areas are being targeted by private sector to capture through auction route and the government is showing readiness to oblige them. The working class has to resist this grievous onslaught on the country’s natural resources and the people at large through militant struggle. Coal workers have already been on the struggle path and are already in the midst of intensive campaign for strike action. The All India Coal Workers’ Federation (affiliated to CITU) had staged two hours’ strike in coal industry on the same 24 November, 2014 which was followed by various agitational programmes in coal mining areas including human chains and roadblockades at various places in the coal-bearing locations throughout the country. The AICWF has also decided to go in for strike action in coal industry on 13 January 2015 and the federation has now been carrying on intensive campaign for the 13 January strike. In such a situation, the four other major federations of coal workers have decided for a five-day strike action from 6 January, 2015 against the same design of de-nationalisation and privatisation and the CITU federation has also extended full support to them. And the joint strike campaign is going on along with independent campaign at the pit level. Struggle must intensify and continue till the game plan of the Modi government to sell out this vital natural resource sector and the energy sector as well is decisively defeated. (END)