Fall of a national asset

From nationalisation to privatisation

1957 Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act came into being; it placed mines and minerals under the control of the Centre but allowed it to only develop and regulate the mines

1973 Coal Mines Nationalisation (CMN) Act enacted; 711 coal mines were nationalised whose development was vested in the Centre; the rest continued to be operated by private companies

1976 CMN Act amended; mining leases with private lease holders terminated except for iron and steel who were allowed mining for captive use

Oct, 1991 The Planning Commission proposed the entry of private entities to develop coal and lignite mines as captive units of power projects

Jan, 1992 Cabinet approval sought for allowing private sector participation in captive coal mining operations for power generation and other end uses to be notified from time to time

Jul, 1992 Coal ministry set up Screening Committee to implement provisions of captive mining as per the 1976 amendment clauses

May, 1993 CMN Act amended to allow private sector participation in coal mining for captive use for purpose of power generation as well as for other captive end uses to be notified from time to time. Coal washery was also included as end use Mar, 1996 Cement included as an end use sector Mar, 1999 NDA government led by BJP allowed captive coal mining companies to sell coal in the open market to keep the surplus stock away from fire

2001 New State Mining Policy came into being; allowed state agencies to mine commercially

May, 2003 Electricity Act 2003 brought about electricity reforms but created open and short-term markets for power trading. With no long-term power purchase agreements with distribution companies in place despite coal allocations since 1993, many captive power producers switched to trading in these power exchanges, which led to high tariff

Jul, 2004 Idea of competitive bidding to ensure transparency in coal block allocation was proposed

Sept, 2010 MMDR Act amended to allow the Centre to set the terms and conditions for the selection of a company through competitive bidding

Feb, 2012 Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines Rules introduced

Aug, 2012 CAG report on Performance Audit of Allocation of Coal Blocks and Augmentation of Coal Production tabled in Parliament

Aug 25, 2014 Supreme Court declared coal block allocation process between 1993 and 2010 illegal

Sept 9, 2014 The court reserved its judgement