GOAL OF INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 17

GOAL OF INDIA

CONTROL RECOMMENDED ,

Extensive""control over methods of coal mining and a cess on, coal dispatches are among the far-reaching recommendations madeviri :the report of the. Coal Mining Committee :• aj>pointed by the Government of India last October to examine India's resources of coal, the need for conservation, new regulations for safety, and other.matters, says the Adelaide,"Observer." It is proposed that a cess of 8 annas (about tenpence) per ton on coal (including soft coke) and 12 annas a ton on hard coke-should be imposed. . The proceeds would be administered by a statutory authority and used mainly to defray the cost of stowing mines with sand when-.coal is excavated, so as to protect life and coal. . The committee draws attention to the prospect of India exhausting her supplies of coal. India, it says, now has only enough good quality' coal in reserve to last 122 years, while reserves of coking coal are adequate only, for 62 years. Life of reserves of good (quality coal in the Jharia coal field is placed at 81 years and coking coal at 57 years. But reserves of coal of inferior quality are practically unlimited. ' "As regards coal of good quality,' 'the report states, "avoidable waste was established in 1920,' but this waste was not considered serious enough to justify Government interference and control in the interests of conservation, because the available "figures of reserves were admittedly largely guesswork, while the loading Indian authorities did not agree even as regards those figures. Since | then a comprehensive survey of the'lndian coal fields has been made by the Geological Survey Department between 1925 ■ and 1929, and the Government of India has stated that this survey has removed all reasonable doubt regarding the importance of conserving the coal assets of the country, particularly in the higher grades." The report discusses .'various systems of conservation and reaches the conclusion that sand stowing is the best and should be enforced in the interests of the community as a whole.