The “Economic blockade” by the Talcher Suraksha Manch continued to paralyse mining operations in the Talcher Coalfields for the second day on Wednesday forcing the Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl) to produce about 2.1 lakh tonne less coal daily, leading to a loss of about Rs5.26 crore to the Odisha exchequer and Rs20 lakh to CSR fund in two days.
The disruption in mining and transport operations may lead power consumers, particularly in southern States to fuel crunch if the stalemate continues, said an MCl release on Wednesday. The agitators are blaming the company for delay in setting up of a medical college and hospital.
The MCl had envisaged an ambitious project of setting up a 100-seat medical college with a 500-bed hospital in Talcher at a cost of Rs492 crore.
While an MoU signed with the State Government in March 2014 asked the company to take all efforts to start the academic session by 2016-17, the company could only get the land free of all encumbrances in December 2014 after having pursued the matter for almost seven years.
In the past six months, the MCl completed all necessary formalities, including identifying Central PSU National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) for infrastructure development of a health institution, named Mahanadi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MIMSR), the Press release said. This is for the third time in the current financial year that mining operations in the Talcher Coalfields have been shut down by agitators.