Union minister of coal Pralhad Joshi has assured the Jharkhand government that the Centre would gradually clear unsettled coal royalties, to the tune of several crores, and resolve all issues centred around rehabilitation and resettlement of those displaced due to mining projects.

The minister, who was on a daylong visit to the state capital on Thursday to review the functioning coal mining companies, handed over a cheque of Rs 250 crore as part payment of royalty to chief minister Hemant Soren at Project Building as a sign of ministry’s commitment.

The minister first met officials of coal extracting companies like CCL, BCCL and ECL at CMPDI in Ranchi. He then went to Project Building in the afternoon to meet the chief minister, significant since it comes about a month after the state government moved Supreme Court to block the Centre’s plan to auction coal blocks for commercial mining.

Joshi said Jharkhand was expected to receive revenues of around Rs 18,889 crore in lieu of over 700 million tonne coal extracted by government-run mining majors in the next four years.

Joshi, who was accompanied by Union tribal affairs minister and Khunti MP Arjun Munda, spoke to the media briefly before flying back to Delhi. “My meeting with chief minister Hemant Soren was fruitful. It has been decided to sort out existing gaps and issues regarding land acquisition through mutual coordination and support. Based on it, we shall clear pending dues, besides deliberating on ways to move ahead to meet the nation’s coal requirement,” he said.

Later, Hemant said that he hoped that the state’s concerns, highlighted before the Union minister, would be addressed in a time-bound manner.

“Although there have been several deliberations on the burning issues of our state, including pending dues of many years, these have not been resolved. But since the minister has given his assurance, we are hopeful again,” he said.

Hemant said that between 2009 and 2019, Coal India acquired 14,296 acre government land for which dues worth Rs 5,439 crore were pending. Similarly, there are pending dues of Rs 2,787 crore from Coal India in lieu of acquiring 5,298 acre forest land.

“This apart, we also spoke about non-payment of royalties after sale of washed coal, unsolved issues of rehabilitation, abandonment of unused or exhausted coal blocks after use in violation of environmental norms, among others,” he said.