Five years after the government, in laying down its climate-change targets, committed to have mandatory coal washing, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has done away with it.
In a gazette notification on Thursday, the ministry amended the Environment Protection Act to drop mandatorily washing coal for supply to thermal power plants.
“Use of coal by Thermal Power Plants, without stipulations as regards ash content or distance shall be permitted,” said the gazette notification.
Business Standard has reviewed the gazette notification. In 2015, as part of its climate-change commitments, the government had made coal washing mandatory for supply to all thermal units more than 500 km from the coal mine.
