By IANS,
Ranchi : The Jharkhand government must improve law and order conditions as the coal production in the state, which has the largest coal reserves in India, has been hit by the Maoist problem, union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said Thursday.
“Coal production has been hit by the Maoist problem in the state. Law and order in Jharkhand is not satisfactory and the state government should do the needful to improve it,” Jaiswal told reporters here.
He stressed the need to hike the coal production considering the high demand for coal in world market after the triple tragedy in Japan.
“The Japan incident has resulted in setback to nuclear-based power plants. The coal power plants’ demand has increased after Japan incident and the prices of coal in world market have gone up. There is need to increase the coal production,” jaiswal said.
As per the ministry, Jharkhand has proven reserves of 39,480,000 tonnes and indicated and inferred reserves amounting to another 37,232,000 tonnes, taking the total to 76,712,000 tonnes. It is followed by Orissa with a total of 65,227 tonnes reserves.
Asked about hiking coal royalty which is a long-standing demand of the state government, Jaiswal noted that the royalty is reviewed every three years. “The ministry will decide coal royalty after review meeting,” he said.
The minister was also not in favour of Jharkhand’s long-standing demand to shift Coal India Limited (CIL) headquarters to Ranchi. “Coal production is taking place in many states and Jharkhand is one of the states producing coal,” he said.