Shillong,June 10: The auction of re-assessed/re-verified inventoried coal has made significant progress, acording to the High Court appointed committee headed by retired justice BP Katakey.
In the 38th report submitted to the court, Katakey observed that the sale of about 93% of the quantity of coal put up for auction on April 28, could be possible due to the proactive steps taken by Nababrata Bhattacharjee, Chairman, Independent Committee for auction of coal in Meghalaya constituted by the state government as well as M.B. Tongper, Joint Secretary, Mining and Geology Department and the DMR, in persuading the bidders to actively participate in the auction process.
“Such proactive steps continued to be taken to ensure deposit of the entire bid value of the coal sold in auction and transportation of such coal by the successful bidders within the time frame allowed”, the report said.
Katakey pointed out that the Metal Scrape Trade Corporation (MSTC), the agency engaged by the CIL, conducted the auction of re-assessed/re-verified inventoried coal on April 28. In the auction, out of 3,72,908 MT coal, 3,45,051 MT was sold, leaving 27,857 MT coal unsold. Hence, out of total quantity of 14,10,710.41 MT re-assessed/re-verified inventoried coal found during the aerial survey conducted and subsequently transported and stored in the depots designated by the CIL, 13,82,853.41 MT in all is sold in various auctions conducted by MSTC, leaving 27,857 MT unsold, as informed by the state Mining and Geology Department.
Out of 3,45,051 MT coal sold in auction conducted on April 28, the successful bidders have made the requisite payment for a quantity of 33,503 MT and mineral transport challans in respect of 9600 MT have been issued by the DMR, leaving 23,903 MT for which mineral transport challans are yet to be issued.
The report said the DMR, within two working days from the date on which the requisite payments and all necessary information for issuance of Mineral Transport Challans have been made by the successful bidders, needs to issue the Mineral Transport Challans for transportation of entire quantity of such coal so as to facilitate transportation of the purchased coal through auction by the successful bidders.
“Delay in issuance of Mineral Transport Challans for the quantity of coal in respect of which all requisite payments have been made, would also result in continued engagement of manpower by the state government at the cost of the public exchequer to protect the coal sold in auction”, Katakey said
All required steps to complete the transportation of the auctioned coal, after payment of the entire bid money by the successful bidder, need to be taken as top most priority so that the depots set-up over the private land could be released to the land owners, for which the state government has to spend public money for payment of rent to the land owners.
Recommendation below
(i) The DMR may be directed to issue the Mineral Transport Challans in respect 23,903 MT coal subject to furnishing all required information for issuance of such challans, allowing transportation of the said quantity of coal by the successful bidders out of the designated depots immediately, as according to the Mining and Geology Department, Govt. of Meghalaya, entire bid value in respect of the said quantity has been deposited by the successful bidders of the auction held on 28/04/2026. The DMR also needs to be directed to issue the Mineral Transport Challans for transportation of the coal within 2 (two) working days of deposit of the entire bid value and furnishing the required information for issuance of such challans by the successful bidders.
(ii) A physical verification of all the depots designated by the CIL for storage of re-assessed/re-verified inventoried coal needs to be conducted by the DMR to find out the actual quantity of such coal, if any, available in every such CIL designated depot.
(iii) The possession of the CIL designated depots in which no coal is presently stored, needs to be handed over to the land owners, if such depots are not required for storage of the coal, so as to avoid payment of any rent to the land owners of such un-utilised depots.
