Patna, Jun 30: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to protesting against rejection of coal linkages to Bihar by the Coal Ministry.
“It is a matter of great disappointment that theMinistry of Coal has in a routine manner summarily rejected the demand for coal linkages to the state government-owned Barauni thermal power station expansion project,” he said.
Kumar alleged that the Ministry of Coal has never been positive to the state government's demand for coal linkage despite repeated request for the same and quoted the latter's letter dated June 18 last.
The Ministry of Coal has rejected the demand for coal linkage for Barauni thermal power station expansion project on untenable grounds referring only to the Ministry of Power's recommendations in the past and conveniently ignoring the same department's request for granting coal linkage as a special case in a letter dated March 12, 2006, the Chief Minister said.
Linking of demand for coal linkage for Barauni thermal power station expansion project to the coal block allocation and coal linkage granted to the three NTPC power projects in Bihar is uncalled for keeping in mind the acute power shortage scenario in Bihar, he said and charged the Ministry of Coal with failing to appreciate the sensitivity of the issue.
Reminding the Prime Minister about a memorandum submitted to him by an all-party delegation on April 6, 2012 requesting coal linkage for Barauni thermal power station expansion project (2x250MW), Kumar expressed disappointment that the Ministry of Coal rejected the request for coal linkage in a routine communication in spite of the fact that the request was made at the PM's level.
“We were under the impression that our request would be considered specially at your level, but to our utter dismay the express matter has not been dealt with in right earnest by the Ministry of Coal that rejected it in a routine communication,” he said.
Kumar urged the Prime Minister to intervene personally in this matter and use his good offices to enable grant of coal linkage for the Barauni thermal power station project on priority basis.
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