Mahan Coal Limited

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Mahan Coal Limited is a disputed coal mine project in Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh, India. The project has been opposed by environmentalists since it seeks to pull down 1200 acres of old sal forests [1] for a coal mine. [2] At least 500,000 prime sal trees would be chopped, and 54 villages [3] with a considerable tribal population would be displaced. [4] However, a group of villagers have also been supporting the mine since it would boost the local economy. [5]

Singrauli district is one of the districts in the India state of Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh State in India

Madhya Pradesh is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain and Sagar being the other major cities. Nicknamed the "Heart of India" due to its geographical location, Madhya Pradesh is the second largest Indian state by area and the fifth largest state by population with over 75 million residents. It borders the states of Uttar Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the southeast, Maharashtra to the south, Gujarat to the west, and Rajasthan to the northwest. Its total area is 308,252 km2. Before 2000, when Chhattisgarh was a part of Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh was the largest state in India and the distance between the two furthest points inside the state, Singoli and Konta, was 1500 km. Konta is presently in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh state.

Contents

Business

Mahan Coal Ltd is a Rs 5,000-crore joint venture between Essar Energy and the Aditya Birla Group (Hindalco). [6]

Essar Energy

Essar Energy Plc is an Indian-focused energy company with assets in the existing power and oil and gas businesses. Headquartered in Port Louis, Mauritius and subsidiary of Essar Group, the firm has interests in both the power generation and petroleum industries. In May 2014 the company was acquired by its majority shareholder.

Aditya Birla Group company

Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Worli, Mumbai, India. It operates in 35 countries with more than 120,000 employees worldwide. The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. The group has interests in sectors such as viscose staple fibre, metals, cement, viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbonblack, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services.

Part of the controversy is based on claims by Greenpeace India that the sanction for the coal mine was given based on a Gram Sabha (village board) resolution that had been forged. [7] The land was allocated to the company based on this document. However, in 2014, the coal block land was deallocated by the Supreme Court [8] resulting in sharp drops in the company's stocks. [9]

Greenpeace India is the Indian branch of the global environmental group Greenpeace, a non-profit NGO, with a presence in 55 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. The Greenpeace India has legally registered society 4 locations with Bengaluru has its headquarters and other branches at Delhi, Chennai, Patna.

The supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and highcourt of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of a supreme court are not subject to further review by any other court. Supreme courts typically function primarily as appellate courts, hearing appeals from decisions of lower trial courts, or from intermediate-level appellate courts.

Its original allocation in 2006 is part of the Indian coal allocation scam. During investigations, the Ministry of Power stated that it had opposed a role for Hindalco in the mine, [1] but the coal ministry under Manmohan Singh allocated the mine to the joint company.

Coal allocation scam is a major political scandal concerning the Indian government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to public sector enterprise (PSEs) and private companies. In a draft report issued in March 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused the Government of India of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 2004–2009. Over the Summer of 2012, resulting in a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into whether the allocation of the coal blocks was in fact influenced by corruption.

Manmohan Singh 13th Prime Minister of India

Manmohan Singh is an Indian economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. The first Sikh in office, Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.

Opposition by Greenpeace India

Since the BJP government came to power, the project has seen considerable support, and has been linked in the media for the Government actions against Greenpeace India. [10]

In January 2015, Priya Pillai, a Greenpeace campaigner very active in Mahan, was offloaded from a flight while she was to meet some British MPs inquiring into the matter. [11] The issue is relevant to Britain since Essar Power is listed in the London Stock Exchange.

This incident was seen

In March 2015, the Ministry of Environment did not give a clearance for the project, [12] and subsequently Ministry of Coal announced that the Mahan coal block would not be auctioned for mining, which was viewed as a victory by the tribespeople living in the villages. [4]

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Hindalco Industries company

Hindalco Industries Ltd., an aluminium and copper manufacturing company, is a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group. Its headquarters are at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the Flagship company of the company in the metals business.

Chandwa (community development block) Community development block in Jharkhand, India

Chandwa, is a community development block in Latehar district, in Indian state of Jharkhand. It is located around 75 km from Ranchi, the state capital. As well as its natural environment, it is known for its bauxite and coal mines. It is mineral rich like most of Jharkhand State. It lies at the junction for the NH39 and NH99 roads, and is also an important railway junction.

Coal India company

Coal India Limited (CIL) is an Indian state-controlled coal mining company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the largest coal-producing company in the world and a Maharatna company.

Veerappa Moily Indian politician

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Ministry of Coal

The Ministry of Coal is an Indian government ministry headquartered in New Delhi. The portfolio is held by Cabinet Minister Piyush Goyal

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Coal mining in India began in 1774 when John Sumner and Suetonius Grant Heatly of the East India Company commenced commercial exploitation in the Raniganj Coalfield along the Western bank of Damodar river. Growth remained slow for nearly a century due to low demand. The introduction of steam locomotives in 1853 boosted demand, and coal production rose to an annual average of 1 million metric tons. India produced 6.12 million metric tons of coal per year by 1900 and 18 million metric tons per year by 1920. Coal production rose steadily over the next few decades, and was boosted by demand caused by World War I. Production slumped in the interwar period, but rose to 30 million metric tons by 1946 largely as a result of World War II.

Essar Group An Indian multinational conglomerate.

Essar Global Fund Limited is an Indian conglomerate group based in Mumbai, India. The Fund is a global investor, controlling a number of assets diversified across the core sectors of Energy, Metals & Mining, Infrastructure and Services.

Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) is a coal producer based in India. The company was founded in 1975 after nationalisation of coal mines in India. It operates coalmines in Jharkhand and West Bengal states of India.It inherited all the private sector coal mines of the Raniganj Coalfield. It is one of the fully owned subsidiaries of Coal India Limited. The company has its headquarters at Sanctoria, in West Bengal.

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) is one of the major coal producing company of India. It is one of the eight subsidiaries of Coal India Limited. Mahanadi Coalfields Limited was carved out of South Eastern Coalfields Limited in 1992 with its headquarters at Sambalpur. It has its coal mines spread across Odisha It has total seven open cast mines and three underground mines under its fold.

Odisha Power Generation Corporation Limited (OPGC) is the only thermal power generating company owned by Government of Odisha. It was incorporated under the Companies Act 1956 on 14 November 1984. OPGC started as a solely owned Government Company of the state of Orissa. It owns and operates 2 units of 210 MW power plant at Ib Thermal Power Station (ITPS), Banharpali in Jharsuguda District of Odisha.The entire generation from these units is committed to GRIDCO on the basis of a long-term Power Purchase Agreement.

Essar Mahan Power Plant is a coal-based thermal power plant located near Singrauli town in Singrauli district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The power plant is operated by the Essar Energy.

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The Priya Pillai offloading of January 2015 was an incident in India where an environmental activist was offloaded from a flight in order to prevent her from testifying internationally on the activity of a firm registered in the UK.

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Aditya Captive Power Plant is a captive 900 megawatt power project located at Lapanga, Sambalpur District Odisha which is part of Hindalco's Smelter_power project in Odisha. It has captive coal from Talabira-2 coal block a JV between Mahanadi Coalfields and Neyveli Lignite Corporation.

References

  1. 1 2 Jay Mazoomdaar (23 Feb 2014). "The curious case of Moily, Essar, Hindalco and Mahan coal block". Firstpost India. quote: Ministry of Power [told the CBI] that it did not recommend the 2006 allocation of Mahan coal block to Hindalco. Instead, it claimed to have asked the Ministry of Coal to allocate Mahan to Essar Power.
  2. ↑ "Mahan at all costs". www.downtoearth.org.in. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  3. ↑ Niyogy, Kingshuk (6 November 2015). "A war to save our forests". Livemint.com/. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  4. 1 2 "How tribal Indians beat big coal firms". BBC. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  5. ↑ Santoshi, Neeraj (4 February 2015). "Madhya Pradesh: Battle for coal divides Mahan villages". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  6. ↑ "Business News, India Stock Market, Personal Finance, IPO, Financial News Headlines". The Financial Express. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  7. ↑ Milind Ghatwai (13 January 2015). "Essar, Hindalco's Mahan coal block: Lobbying for 3 yrs, Greenpeace claims clearance given under pressure". Financial Express.Quote: Greenpeace alleged that signatures of most of the villagers had been forged and that the resolution also included signatures of at least six villagers who were not alive.
  8. ↑ "Supreme Court cancels 214 of 218 coal block allocations; gives operational mines 6 months to wrap up". dna. 24 September 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  9. ↑ "JSPL, Hindalco drop on concerns over de-allocation of coal mines". Business Standard . 4 September 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  10. ↑ Sethi, Nitin (20 February 2015). "NDA govt's grouse with Greenpeace: Mahan coal block protests" . Retrieved 20 December 2018– via Business Standard.
  11. ↑ "Greenpeace campaigner Priya Pillai speaks to British MP's via Skype". dna. 15 January 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  12. ↑ DelhiApril 11, Abhishek Bhalla New; April 24, 2015UPDATED:; Ist, 2015 09:13. "Union government divided over Greenpeace campaign against Mahan coal block project in MP". India Today. Retrieved 20 December 2018.

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