Ranchi, July 30: Chief minister Arjun Munda today asked Coal India and its subsidiaries to pay royalty to the state without indulging in delaying tactics like going into appeal over the due amount, estimated to be around Rs 450 crore.

Coal India’s officiating chairman Laxmi Chand flew in to the city for the meeting. Chand was accompanied by chairman-cum-managing directors of Coal India’s subsidiaries like Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Central Coalfields Limited and Eastern Coalfields Limited.

Munda did not agree with the suggestion that often production figures were inflated while calculating the amount of royalty. Munda said he would not accept the “excuse” that some company is on the BIFR list or not. “Money due to Jharkhand should be paid and efforts made to increase this amount,” he told the coal officials.

This was the second meeting between the Coal India chairman and the chief minister over sensitive issues like payment of royalty, loss of royalty and cess to the state because of illegal mining, clearance of forest land for starting new mining projects, and law and order affecting mining operations adversely.

Before meeting the chief minister, Laxmi Chand reviewed work of CCL and CMPDI and asked them to further improve their functioning.

On his maiden visit to the city, Chand’s message to CCL was to optimise functioning of its washeries and produce coal after preparing proper and viable projects. In the review meeting held at Indian Institute of Coal Management, another Coal India unit, he was told of the Rs 16.26 crore profit earned by CCL in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Chand asked CMPDI to prepare plans for modernisation of mines.