Team News Riveting
Raipur, February 7
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai Wednesday announced to restore the old practice of coal transportation by seeking online Transport Permit (TP).
The Director of Geology and Mining Department issued a notification on July 15, 2020 that modified the earlier online process of e-permit for transporting the coal from mines to users to manual no-objection certificate (NOC). No procedure was circulated in this regard. The transporters had to get the manual permit from the department that allegedly resulted in the extortion of illegal coal levy.
The Enforcement Directorate probing Chhattisgarh’s infamous coal scam had mentioned in the charge-sheet that an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in the state by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen. The ED had arrested
The 35 accused persons named in the coal levy scam, include former Chhattisgarh CM aide Soumya Chaurasia, suspended IAS office Sameer Bishnoi, suspended IAS officer Ranu Sahu, alleged kingpin Suryakant Tiwari, Congress leader Ram Gopal Aggarwal, MLA Devendra Singh Yadav, former MLA of Kunkuri U D Minj and others, officials said. Of them, four are under arrest in Raipur central jail.
Former Minister and BJP MLA Rajesh Munat raised the issue of coal transportation and related permits through a call attention notice.
Asserting that his government was committed to transparency and good governance, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai announced the cancellation of the decision taken by the then Geology and Mining Director, Bishnoi on July 15, 2020. Sai announced the issuance of online TP from now onwards.
The Chief Minister said the earlier online process was stopped and made offline, due to which there were delays in transportation besides promoting corrupt practice.
