The government favours acquiring of coal mines by Coal India limited,CIL outside the country. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Coal, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal while talking to reporters after chairing the standing committee meeting on safety of mines in New Delhi. He said that CIL should go to acquire such blocks either through Joint Venture or on purchasing basis. Expressing concern on the increasing demand and supply gap of coal in the country, he said this will help meet the requirements in future.Mr Jaiswal said that coal imports are increasing at a rate of 20 per cent in the past few years and this year it will cross the mark of 80 million tons while it was 67 million tons in the last financial year.Our AIR correspondent reports that the Minister also reviewed the various safety measures in the coal mines.