New Delhi As many as 50 of the 57 captive coal blocks allocated to private firms, which are at the centre of a row over a damning CAG report, haven’t yet got various other statutory clearances.

The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan today termed as "governance issue" the CAG's report critical of the allocation of coal blocks without auction.

While the CAG is right about resource allocation through competitive bidding, mineral resources are universally let out on annual lease and not auctioned off for a lump sum.

Rejecting the CAG report, the Government said Friday that coal block allocation to private firms were done in a transparent manner.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has estimated windfall gains of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to over 90 private companies that were allocated captive coal blocks between 2004 and 2009 in an alleged

Government auditor CAG on Friday said private firms were likely to gain Rs 1.86 lakh crore from coal blocks that were allocated to them on nomination basis instead of competitive bidding, which will result in a loss to the national exchequer.

The CAG in its report, tabled in Parliament, names 25 companies including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power which have got the blocks in various States.

New Delhi Jindal Power continues to sell electricity from its Tamnar power plant on a merchant basis, ignoring the coal ministry’s recent directive that stipulates that power plants running on captive coal must not quote a higher price for power supply in tariff bidding than those offered by generating stations based on fuel linkage from Coal India.

JPL, a subsidiary of Jindal Steel and Power, has quoted a R5.27-a-unit price to supply power to APCDPCL, an Andhra Pradesh discom, from its Tamnar plant based on captive coal, compared with R4.29 and R4.4 a unit offered by KSK Mahanadi and Corporate Power plants running on coal supplied by CIL under long-term linkage, according to industry sources.

The villagers affected by the six million tonne steel plant of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) at Nisha near here on Monday launched a blockade around the project site to press for fulfillment of their demands pertaining to higher land compensation and jobs in the project.

They were also peeved over the government apathy to convene a meeting of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) in the last six months to resolve their problems.

Three lessees charged with violation of Rule-37 of Mineral Concession Rules-1960 – Indrani Patnaik, KJS Ahluwalia and R P Sao- have filed petitions in the revision authority under Union ministry of mines, dealing a blow to the ongoing investigation by the state steel & mines department.

Indrani Patnaik has even got an interim order from the revision authority barring the state government from passing any final order in case of Rule-37 violation before the lessee’s revision application is disposed off by the authority. The state government, however, has been allowed to carry on hearing in the case, said a steel & mines department official.

Steelmaker will use the loan for a 2-mt, coal-to-gas direct reduced iron plant near Angul.