ES Reporter

Itanagar, Apr 27: In what could be termed as shocking decision, the current political leadership in the frontier state had taken a decision on July 2, 2019 to bear additional levy of Rs 31.66 Cr imposed by the Supreme Court of India without giving much thought to the health of state run PSU and legality of the matter including Work Order, Article of Agreement, opinions of legal experts. This decision has raised many eyebrows over the intent and conduct of the government.  
“This decision was in violation of Work Order and Articles of Agreement between Tinsukia based M/s National Mining Corporation Limited (NMCL) and state’s PSU, Arunachal Pradesh Mineral Development and Trading Corporation Limited (APMDTCL),” says Kaku Potom who has petitioned the High Court for a PIL in case no PIL/13/2019.
If GoAP pays the additional levy, this would bleed the APMDTCL by about Rs 14 crore since the PSU made a profit of only Rs 18.59 Crore in its five years of operation from 2007 up to 2012 by extracting and marketing of 10, 73, 368 MT of coal. Therefore, it is shocking to note that the current government had ignored the “Work Order” and “Articles of Agreement”, added Potom and has questioned the intent of the government behind paying the amount.
The Apex Court had imposed the penalty of Rs 295/ MT of coal extracted vides order dated 25th August 2014 in the Writ Petition (CRL) No 120 of 2012 in the Manohar Lal Sharma Vs The Principal Secretary. This was based on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General dealing with the financial loss caused to the exchequer by the illegal and arbitrary allotment. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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