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Maharashtra moves coal ministry to get forest clearance for Chhattisgarh block | India News

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NEW DELHI: Maharashtra has sought the coal ministry’s intervention in getting forest clearance for the Chhattisgarh government coal block allotted to its power stations in the Vidarbha region, becoming the second state to knock on the Centre’s doors over mining hurdles in a state that has the country’s third-largest coal deposits.
MAHAGENCO (Maharashtra State Power Generation Company) MD Sanjay Khandare last week wrote to coal secretary Anil Jain, saying the utility had fulfilled the conditions for forest diversion for the Gare Palma-II coal block in October 2021 but the state government was yet to send its recommendation for Stage-I forest clearance to the Centre. Khandare requested the ministry to intervene in the matter as an early clearance was important to start production from the block, located in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh, by October 2023 deadline.
This the second instance of delays being faced by coal block owners in Chattisgarh. As first reported by TOI, Rajasthan was the first to knock on the Centre’s doors over Chhattisgarh government delaying clearances for starting two new mines and ramping up production from two others allotted to Rajasthan.
As both states have the Congress in office, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot escalated the matter to party president Sonia Gandhi after his letters to Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel seeking prompt action went unheeded. The Gare Palma-II block was awarded in August 2015 to MAHAGENCO for fuelling the Koradi, Chandrapur-8 power plants, the largest generation complex in the state’s Vidarbha region. The block has peak annual production capacity of over 23 million tonne.
MAHAGENCO had applied for forest clearance in 2016 for 214 hectares of forest land. But the application could not be processed due to unavailability of government land for compensatory afforestation. The utility reworked the mine boundary, obtained private land for afforestation and submitted the details to the district forest authorities in September last year.
The district authorities cleared the forest diversion proposal and forwarded it to the state government in October for recommending Stage-I approval to the Union forest and environment ministry.



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