Coal news and updates

MCL official manhandled, one more mine impacted

April 10: After the disruption in transportation from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd’s (MCL’s) two mines since April 7 due to agitation by locals, one more mine in the Talcher Coalfields’ Jagannath area – Jagannath Colliery – has been affected from the morning of April 10 due to the same reasons, an official from the company told ICMW.

Transportation of coal from Bhubaneswari and Ananta mines were stopped from the evening of April 7.

“Transportation came to a halt from this morning at our third mine, Jagannath Colliery, in the Talcher area, after local villagers barged into the project office and manhandled the project manager,” the official said.

“If things continue this way, wherein police is a meek spectator and doing nothing to stop unruly villagers, we will have no option other than to stop production in the area as there is limited place to keep stockpiles,” the official said.

According to the official, police is not taking steps against the protesters as they feel villagers are protesting against the central government’s decision to go ahead with the promulgation of the land acquisition Act.

“It is not only an evacuation loss to the extent of 1 lakh tons per day, there will be a cascading effect of the transportation blockage because we will have to stop production and then re-starting operations will cause a few days’ loss. In addition, decision making also gets delayed,” the official added.