TVR Shenoy should stick to political gossip and innuendo, and his usual faithful BJP/Sangh Parivaar line.
Rao has no clue about the Indian Coal industry and he exhibits his ignorance in grand fashion in this article. For his information, Gujarat and Rajasthan, two states under BJP rule which both boast of large Lignite (Brown Coal) reserves, also account for a very large chunk of the Imported coal consumed all over Western India in power plants, cement plants and other industries. The real test for the user is the cost per unit of heat delivered at his plant. Coal is always cheaper to transport by ships in bulk, say 45 to 65000 Tons per ship rather than by train loads of a few thousand tons. This partly explains why Tamil Nadu which is about as far from Chota Nagpur as Punjab is, but receives Indian coal by the rail-cum-sea route, and is also more efficient in producing electricity.
Mr Shenoy is a good puveyor of gossip and assumes we are all dying to know what transpired between the Coal Minister and the Coal Secretary. But all the same Rediff editors should spare us from Shenoy's unalloyed prejudices and tripe.
