Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday met Union Minister for Coal and Mines, G. Kishen Reddy and urged hm to extract new minerals.
During detailed discussions at the Union Minister's office at Shastri Bhawan here, Chief Minister Dr. Sarma requested Union Minister Reddy to extract new minerals and to build seamless coal linkages to the upcoming thermal power plants in the State.
The Chief Minister also urged the Union Minister to expand its area of operations at the Margherita coal mines to help Assam to augment its income from coal.
Reddy assured Dr. Sarma that he would look into the requirements of Assam in the crucial coal and mines sector to refuel the economy.
"The discussion focused on harnessing Assam’s mineral potential and strengthening cooperation in the mining sector," said CMO Assam in its official X handle.
Officials from Coal and Mines pointed out that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) recently approved revisions to the country’s Shakti Policy, setting off coal sector reforms that aims to transparently allocate coal to thermal power plants, while simplifying the processes around it.
This comes against the backdrop of India’s double achievement of surpassing 1 billion tonnes in coal production and despatch in 2024-2025.
Assam Chief Secretary, Dr.Ravi Kota, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Dr.KK Dwivedi, Resident Commissioner, Assam Bhawan, New Delhi, Kavitha Padmanabhan attended the meeting with senior officials from the Ministry of Coal and Mines.
Later, taking to X (formerly Twitter), Chief Minister Dr. Sarma posted, "Had a good meeting on securing Assam’s coal and mineral requirements with Hon’ble Union Minister Shri @kishanreddybjp Ji. We had an in-depth discussion on building seamless coal linkages to the upcoming thermal power plants in the State; expanding operations at the Margherita coal mines and extraction of new minerals."
