The burning inferno of Jharia Coal Mines may take even longer to be doused. The State Government has made it clear to the Bharat Coking Coal limited (BCCl) that acquisition of land for resettling the inhabitants of the affected area, can only be done under Urgency Clause of the land Acquisition Bill.
Highly placed sources in the Coal Ministry and BCCl have confirmed it to The Pioneer about the development that may come as huge financial burden for the coal major. As per the provision under ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2015’—series of Ordinances are out for its sustenance—the land in question can be acquired by paying seven times compensation from the market rate.
“As per the provisions of Section 40 of the new land Acquisition Act the compensation is seven times of the prevailing market rate against four times in the case of normal purpose in urban areas. The land for resettling Jharia fire affected is needed to be taken under the clause. It is now up to BCCl and any other competent agency to take a call on this,” said State land Revenue Secretary KK Soan.
Under the Urgency Clause (Section 40), the powers to determine ‘any other emergency’ has to be exercised by the concerned State Government. At present, Urgency Clause is restricted to defense, national security or for any other emergency arising out of natural calamity or any other emergency with the approval of Parliament.
Following the suggestion, a meeting of high-powered committee involving the Union Coal Secretary and top officials of the BCCl has been convened on Friday. “The matter is beyond the jurisdiction of the BCCl’s board of directors and thus the high-powered committee has been designated to take a call on the issue if the Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) takes the matter before it in tomorrow’s meeting,” DC Jha, Director (Tech) Operation told this newspaper on Thursday. Earlier, the meeting was scheduled to take place in Ranchi but due to Union Cabinet meeting it has been relocated to Delhi.
Jha nevertheless did not utter anything about financial implications, if taken, the decision could have. Pertinent is to know here that previous attempts to control the fires by sealing the surface, trenching and pumping in inert gases had limited success and were blamed for driving the BCCl close to bankruptcy.
The unforeseen, devastating fire had been detected way back in 1916 and has already devoured about 37 million tonnes of steel making quality of coal. It has also blocked access to two billion tonnes more worth thousands of crore of rupees. Jha, although, claimed that from earlier 9 km2 it has been tamed and brought down to 2.18 km2 at present.
After virtually being overlooked for decades the spreading fire came into fore since Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Jharkhand in February this year and urged Chief Minister Raghubar Das to speed up work on putting out the fires and shifting the people living there. It is estimated that over 1,00,000 people residing near the coalfields are critically affected by the underground fires and needed to be evacuated for dousing it permanently.
A couple of months back, Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had remarked during his Ranchi stay that the onus lies on the State Government for making available land for resettling the residents. Thereafter, the exercise has seen some serious strides and the State Government has even identified land for the purpose.
“About 2500 acres of land is required for rehabilitating those affected. We have identified lands at villages such as lipania, Belgharia and few others. Once it is decided that under what provisions the land had to be acquired the process would start,” said KN Jha, Dhanbad DC.
Experts say that the burning deposits of Jharia are particularly prized because these are the only source of top quality steelmaking coal in the country. India spends $4 billion a year on importing that grade of coal, estimates suggest.
