Pothashang News Service : Imphal, February 26, 2018: Consumer affairs, food and public distribution (CAF & PD) minister Karam Shyam announced that the state has started catering coal to industrial units in the state so that deforestation can be banned effectively and at the same time increase the state’s income.
Brick fields and other small and medium industrial units have been using wood fuel which leads to mass destruction of forest. In order to substitute the use of forest product the state has currently started supplying coal. This will help to lessen use of forest woods as fuel, said the minister.
The minister was at the site of Eastern House construction Private Ltd., Waithou, Imphal, East.
Shyam said director of commerce and industries, Manipur and the chief inspector of Factories and Boilers cum CE nominated CAF & PD department as supplying agency under new coal distribution policy of Coal India Limited.
Under the new coal distribution policy of India, a coal consumer has to procure not less than 4,300 metric tons directly in a year. As the industrial units cannot procure this huge limit the state has come up to supply in smaller units to industrialist. From this the state will get a margin of 5 percent. This will help to increase the state income besides conserving the environment, said Shyam.
The state has so far engaged Eastern Coalfields Limited, West Bengal, Bharat Cooking Coal Limited, Jharkhand and North Eastern Coalfield, Margherita, Assam. At present a total of seven lakh metric tons have been procured from the coalfields out of proposed 10, 000 metric tons.
The coal is priced according to grades, Rs. 5.40 per kg for grade-I coal, Rs. 4.60 for grade-II, Rs. Rs. 4. 50 for grade-III, Rs. 4.30 for grade-IV and Rs. 3.90 for grade-V, said Shyam.
The present import of coal by private firms in the state is illegal and it does not pay taxes to the government. The firms are procuring coals from Meghalaya and Dimapur. After we make this announcement the state can take up steps to restrict unauthorized buying of coal. The government will soon take up measures to stop illegal transport of coal into the state, added the minister.
One can order to acquire the coal by March to the department. The government will meet the demand of the industrialists. At present we have procured 3, 000 metric tons we will try to make the coal flow and meet the demand. The CAF& PD department has so far supplied 300 metric tons coal to few brick fields , said the minister.
We appeal the industrialist to procure coal from the state agency and substitute wood fuel by coal, added the minister.
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