4 Jharkhand villagers killed in police firing over NTPC land issue
At least four villagers were killed and more than 20 injured in police firing in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district on Saturday morning, an officer said.
"Prohibitory orders were imposed in area. The situation is under control. Additional forces were sent to spot," Inspector General Operation and Police spokesperson M S Bhatia told IANS.
According to Bhatia, the problem began when police took Congress legislator Nirmala Devi from Barkagaon inHazaribagh into custody.
She has been staging a protest at the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plant gate for last few days.
"The NTPC was finding difficulties in taking heavy machines inside the work area. Police took custody of the Congress legislator. The villagers forcefully freed Nirmala Devi and abducted Additional Superintendent of Police(ASP), Circle Officer (CO) and thrashed them brutally. Additional reinforcement were sent. The aggressive villagers continued pelting stones on the police," said Bhatia.
At least six policemen were critically injured and two policevehicles torched after which the police opened fire at the villagers.
The ASP was rushed to Ranchi for treatment.
The villagers supported by the opposition parties were protesting against land acquisition and low compensation amount by the NTPC.
Earlier, former Congress MLA of Barkagaon Yogendra Sao fought for the cause of the villagers and later his wife Nirmala Devi, now MLA, supported them.
The NTPC Barkagaon project is facing protest since 2004.
In 2010, coal mines in the area were allocated to the NTPC but work could not begin.
The entire opposition showing solidarity with the villagers had visited the Barkagaon in July this year.
The NTPC had lodged an FIR against former Chief Minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantantrik (JVM-P) president Babulal Marandi, former central minister and Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay and others for entering into the mining area without permission.
Earlier in August, the opposition leaders had surrendered in the Hazaribagh court but the policerefused to arrest them.
The issue was taken by Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Hazaribagh MP and central minister Jayant Sinha and former central minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha held meeting with the Chief Minister and villagers.
The opposition parties have condemned the firing.
Last month, two persons were killed in police firing in Ramgarh district during protests for land acquisition and proper compensation. The villagers were protesting against the Inland Power at Gola.
--IANS
Petition filed in High Court over NTPC forest land issue
A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in Jharkhand High Court on Thursday accused the Raghubar Das government of illegal diversion of 46 square kilometer (2,500 acres) of forest land in Hazaribag into NTPC's Pankri-Barwadih Coal Project. The PIL, filed by former IPS turned politician PK Siddharth and Ekta Parishad - an organization working for forest conservation nationally - accused Hazaribag district authorities of ignoring provisions of the 2006 forests' act and allowing NTPC to begin its mining and excavation activities in the area. The PIL has sought the court's intervention in the suspension of the ongoing mining and excavation activities and cancellation of the allotment to NTPC.
According to the petitioners, Hazaribag district authority has flouted clause 24 (a) of the 2006 forests act, which mandates state governments to seek written consent of a minimum of 50% of the Gram Sabha representatives (village committees) and submit a report, before diverting forest land for other use. Siddharth and Saryu Prasad (representative of Ekta Parishad) said the consent letter was signed by six members of the village committees. "The consent was taken by the forests management committee but the forests acts committee should prepare a report and send it to the village committees for consent," Siddharth said .
The report prepared by the forest management committee said the forest land was home to a few species of rodents. Prasad accused the district administration of forgery, quoting forest departments' database of animals found in Hazaribag West Forest division. The database lists the presence of mongoose, chital, barking deer, Nilgai and elephants in the diverted land. "Mining has already begun. This poses a threat to the bio-diversity and rainfall cycle," Prasad said.
Addressing the media in Bharatiya Suraj Dal's party office in Harmu Housing Colony, the petitioners accused Hazaribag district authority of foul-play in forest land diversion. The duo also referred to a Hazaribag district welfare officer's RTI reply to RJD leader Gautam Sagar Rana, in July, in which the welfare officer said land diversion was not issued from his office.
This comes amid continuing protests by Raiyats in Pankri, Barwadih, Keredari blocks against the acquisition of cultivable lands, for more than three months. According to estimates, NTPC's projects will result in eviction of 11,000 families and affect 60,000 people. Officials from NTPC's Pankri-Barwadih coal project and Hazaribag district authority remained unavailable for comments.
Tariff orders for NTPC could lead to under-recovery in energy charge: Ind-Ra
The latest tariff orders for some plants NTPC could lead to significant under-recoveries on fuel cost on account of a lower energy charge rate, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report.
This pertains to the energy charge rate (ECR) approved by CERC, which is 20-31 per cent lower than what was sought by NTPC. The difference in the ECR is due to the change in the basis for measurement of the gross calorific value (GCV) of coal to 'as-received" as against "as fired".
CERC is likely to follow the same principle for the rest of NTPC's plants leading to large differences in the fuel cost recovery, said Ind-Ra
"NTPC would contest the same through regulatory process and initiate steps to install the infrastructure for measurement of coal GCV on "as received" basis. There is also a possibility of a dialogue between NTPC and Coal India Limited (CIL) to resolve differences over coal grade slippages," said Ind-Ra.
As per CERC's tariff regulations 2014-2019, coal GCV has to be measured at the point of unloading of the coal at the power station gate, referred to "as-received" basis compared to the earlier regulations, which allowed measurement of coal GCV at the point before coal is fired, referred to "as-fired" basis.
In its petition to CERC, NTPC had been highlighting the lack of infrastructure at its plants as the reason for its inability to measure coal GCV on "as-received" basis. Therefore, CERC, in the absence of data on "as-received" basis, has now considered the GCV on "as-billed" basis while arriving at the ECR leading to the consideration of a higher GCV rate.
The difference between the GCV on "as-received" and "as-fired" basis is governed by the ambient temperature, type of coal and duration for which coal is stored.
As per the Central Electricity Authority of India, the heat loss during such time should not be more than 0.1 per cent in GCV value, which is in line with international studies. However, in this case the difference between the GCV of the coal works out to 20-31 per cent.
Power companies worried over railway's decision to levy coal terminal surcharge
Indian Railways’ decision to levy coal terminal surcharge at both loading and unloading ends for power companies located beyond 100 km of coal mines has hit private power players more than state-owned generators, power producers said.
Experts say only 15% of this increased cost can be passed on to consumers, while the rest has to be absorbed by companies, pressurising their already tight margins.
Power generation costs as a result of this levy are estimated to go up by 8 paisa per unit.
“A large number of private companies are located beyond 100 kilometres of coal mines and it has increased their power generation costs at a time when power is surplus,” said Ashok Khurana of Association of Power Producers.
Power companies moving coal over 150 km are incurring Rs 110 per tonne rise in coal transportation costs, said Jayanta Roy, senior vice president at ICRA. For a 1,000 mw power plant operating at 80% capacity utilisation, input costs would go up by about Rs 55 crore a year. They would be incurring an additional Rs 200 per tonne, including VAT and duties.
“This year, the Central Electricity Authority has allowed passing on only about 6.1% of the transport costs to consumers. Going by .the calculation, power companies can pass on only Rs 30 per tonne of coal while they have been incurring an additional `200 per tonne rise in transport costs – only about 15% of the increased cost can be thus be passed on,” said Roy.
Coal Consumers’ Association has made several representations to the government. Its secretary general Subhasri Chaudhuri said, “Loading and unloading terminals are mostly equipped and manned by buyers and hence there is no rationalisation in levying such charges. Further, traffic freight changes have increased freight anything between 9% and 41% for distances of 300 km-1,000 km.”
Industry analysts say majority of thermal power plants of the central generating companies’ are located at distances less than 100 km. A large number of these plants either have their own conveyor belts and rail links or they transport the coal on trucks for such short distances.
“Private companies such as Adani Power, RattanIndia Power, Bajaj Energy, Sembcorp and GMR Power have plants beyond 100 km, while NTPC has plants within 100 km distance,” said a power sector analyst.
Adani’s plants in Tiroda and Kawai, GMR’s plants inWarora and Chattisgarh, Hinduja Power’s plant and Reliance Power’s Rosa plant are all located beyond 100 km of coal mines.
Essar Power pays Jharkhand coal mine dues
Two weeks after the ministry of coal issued a notice of default of payment to Essar Power, the company paid the pending amount.
The payment, done on Thursday, pertains to the third and last tranche of payment of the upfront amount for the Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand, which Essar won in an auction last year. As the state government has not extended the mining lease for the company, starting operations at the mine would take time.
Senior officials in the ministry told Business Standard thatEssar Power paid the pending Rs 17 crore on Thursday. The company confirmed the development.
A company spokesperson said: “Essar would like to state that the company has recently approached and responded to the MoC, stating that Essar will be paying Rs 17 crore towards the final installment and will execute the mining lease for the Tokisud mine and is awaiting a suitable response.”
Ministry officials said the Jharkhand government had denied the extension of mining lease for Essar Power after the company delayed payment. “The state government would now review the mining lease and re-issue it. The decision lies with the state government,” said the official.
Jharkhand officials could not be contacted immediately. Sources, however, said it would take more than two weeks for the mining lease to be re-issued.
In the notice issued by the ministry on September 15, the government observed that Essar Powerhas been defaulting on payment for operating the mine. The company had replied to prior notices of the government, over the past year, citing several reasons, including its inability to get finance and details regarding the mine from the prior allottee.
“In view of the above circumstances, it is clear that the successful bidder is unwilling to deposit the third installment and is unwilling to get the mining lease executed. As the final opportunity given the state government for execution of the mining lease is already over, the nominated authority is constrained to terminate the agreement,” said the September 15 notice reviewed by Business Standard.
The nominated authority is the designated department of the coal ministry that executes the coal auction proceedings.
A mining lease was signed with the state government of Jharkhand in July 2015. The state government issued three letters to remind Essar Power to meet its mining obligations and raised issues of delay.
To this, the company said it had invested Rs 450 crore by way of cash payment and performance guarantee and have made all efforts to start mining at the Tokisud North coal block. “We have not been able to commence any development work, as Essar has not received important data and documents pertaining to rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R). In view of this, the mining lease could not be executed despite our best efforts and we could not make the final payment of Rs 17 crore,” said the Essar spokesperson.
Tokisud was earlier owned by GVK Power. A Supreme Court decision in August 2014 had cancelled all coal block allocations made over two decades.
Essar also said there was a law & order issue at site. “There are many local contractors/sub-contractors to whom prior allottee owes considerable amounts. Until logical settlement is completed, commencement of any work will be extremely difficult,” the company added.
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Anurag Singal
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EMIL, Aditya Birla Group
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