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Shankar panel suggests recast of CIL

Indrani Dutta

Regulatory authority mooted; favours hiving off CMPDIL from CIL

KOLKATA: The T. L. Shankar Committee, which has now completed its report on the Indian coal sector reforms, has said that the present structure of Coal India Ltd (CIL) needs to be recast.

It has also recommended the setting up of an Office of Coal Governance and Regulatory Authority, which would not be a mere regulatory organisation but a development one as well, entrusted with resource management

Referring to its recommendation on CIL recast, the panel, in its draft report, said that the issue should be considered only during the XII Plan period since any major change might disrupt the production plans of the public sector behemoth, at a time when it is required to increase output from about 400 million tonnes to 1,000 million in ten years.

Coal shortages

The committee, of which Tata Sons Director, J. J. Irani, was a member, has forecast `pronounced coal shortages over the next four years'. Pending the major recast, the committee felt that the current structure of CIL and its role as the corporate company and the subsidiaries should be changed.

The CIL chairman should be made chairman of all subsidiary companies with the current CMDs being re-designated as vice-chairman and managing director.

The panel wanted the Union Coal Ministry to quickly examine the Articles of Association of CIL and its subsidiaries to include these changes, since these board-level restructuring did not entail changing the legal status.

The committee favoured separating CMPDIL (Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd.) from CIL or at least distancing the two organisations. For Neyveli Lignite Corporation, the panel recommended status quo while for Singareni Collieries Company it suggested an upgradation.

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