Mr Naveen Jindal chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited said that the end use norms of coal blocks should not be changed during their E auction and urged the Odisha government to take up the matter with the centre.

Mr Jindal after meeting Chief Secretary Mr GC Pati and steel secretary Mr RK Sharma, said that "The centre has decided to allocate eight of the nine coal blocks in Odisha under e-auction for the power plants and only one block is for steel, captive and aluminium sectors. Earlier, one coal blocks was reserved for power sector. The change of end-use plan will affect our plant."

Mr Jindal said that "We have already invested about INR 21,000 crore in our steel plant at Angul on the basis of Utkal B1 block allocated to us. We want that the end-use projects of the coal block should not be changed, otherwise investments made at the steel plant will be sick."

He said that "I hope the Odisha government would take up the matter with centre so that we can bid for a coal block for our steel plant."

Utkal B1 coal block, with an extractable coal reserve of 150 million tonne is among the 214 blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court in September. JSPL is claiming having invested about INR 300 crore in developing the block. With the change in end-use conditions, JSPL will not be in a position to bid for the Utkal B1 block which is about 5 kilometers away from its steel plant in Angul.

Last week, Western Australia forecast its first deficit in 15 years—a graphic illustration of the havoc that plummeting commodity prices are causing to the wider 1.5 trillion Australian dollar (US$1.2 trillion) economy as China’s slowdown cools a decadelong mining boom.

Gary Katz, owner of Bagels & Beans, a cafeteria in downtown Perth, has witnessed a gradual emptying of commercial properties nearby, as hard-pressed mining companies scout for cheaper offices away from the city center.

Hay Street, where Mr. Katz’s caf� is located, used to be buzzing by 8 a.m. as workers flooded in, he said. “Now it’s a bit of a ghost town,” he added, estimating that close to a quarter of commercial properties were now vacant, compared with only about 1% or 2% at the peak of the mining boom two years ago.

Andrew Snow, business-development coordinator at a company that rents earth-moving equipment, said that in 2012 it cost on average A$2,400 a week to rent a house; now the price has fallen to A$1,400 as big mining construction projects wind down. “There’s not the business there that there was two years ago.”

As recently as May, the state’s conservative government was forecasting a A$175 million surplus in the fiscal year through June, a rosy estimate based on iron-ore prices averaging about 40% higher than they stand currently. Western Australia revised that forecast to a deficit of A$1.3 billion based on new expectations that iron ore will average US$75 a ton, not US$122.70.

Credit agencies in recent months stripped the state of its top rating. Worried lawmakers are seeking to sell assets worth billions of dollars, ranging from ports to a wholesale fruit-and-vegetable market, but analysts say the state’s balance sheet will remain stretched unless iron-ore prices recover soon.

Foreign laborers once flocked to service Western Australia’s insatiable appetite for mine workers, but growth in the state’s population of foreigners has slowed to the lowest rate in eight years. And while low interest rates helped lift house prices in the country’s other state capitals in the third quarter from the second, in Perth they fell.

The reversal of Western Australia’s fortunes has humbled the state, whose size would cover about a quarter of the continental U.S.

“Under no circumstances could this deficit have been avoided,” Western Australia’s premier, Colin Barnett, told reporters last week. He blamed not just plummeting iron-ore prices but also a A$7.1 billion collapse in revenue from mining-royalty payments, including from gold resources that are also found extensively in the state.

It is a huge contrast from as little as two years ago, when investment in iron-ore mining in the state reached A$20.7 billion as resource giants such as BHP Billiton Ltd. , Rio TintoPLC, and the midtier Fortescue Metals Group , were expanding mines and ports around the iron-ore rich Pilbara region.

According to the Pilbara Development Commission, the average advertised housing-rental price in Port Hedland, a town in the Pilbara region, dropped from A$2,544 a week in the third quarter of 2012 to $1,236 two years later.

To cope with the drop-off in revenue, the state said it would reduce wages paid to government workers, which have hovered above national averages.

Replacement workers on government projects will be paid only about 60% of the salary of their predecessors—saving around A$1.3 billion, said Mike Nahan, the state treasurer. Those measures are intended to help Western Australia return to a surplus in two years, even if iron-ore prices stay at current levels.

Western Australia’s economic woes have also derailed the federal government’s own spending plans.

The government recently dashed hopes of returning the country to a surplus within the next five years, as Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised ahead of the last election.

Treasurer Joe Hockey said falling iron-ore prices would wipe from its coffers A$14.4 billion in tax revenue from businesses and another A$8.6 billion in income-tax receipts over the next four years.

Mr. Abbott this month reshuffled his cabinet inner circle, promising to focus next year on the economy and jobs, as he confronts opposition to planned cuts in health, welfare and education spending.