In the wake of worldwide united effort to fight against the spread of coronavirus pandemic, there is a growing demand by the locals here that the district administration put a brake on the movement of trucks in the mining sector in the lockdown period of seven days.
Sources revealed that Joda-Barbil of Keonjhar district being the mining hub of the country, it receives thousands of trucks from different parts of the country like Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and even from Bangladesh daily to transport iron ore and other minerals.
In the context of coronavirus, the presence of drivers and helpers whose number is said to be double of the trucks has heightened the risk of spreading the infection and so there is panic among the locals over the matter.
It is alleged that the drivers and helpers not only enter to the different mines but also come in contact with local people through hotels , grocery shops, medicine shops, medicals and garages etc. If no action is taken to check the entry of those outsiders who are vulnerable to spread of the Coronavirus, they may pose a big risk.
Ashish Singh, a local truck owner of Joda, demanded that the district administration take immediate steps to stop the moment of trucks. Like wise , Congress leader Ashok Thackar of Barbil alleged that not only was risk of infection due to the inflow of people from different parts to Keonjhar but also it would spike the demand for different sanitised items like mask and other consumables ,leading to black marketing of the items.
He recalled that in the year 2015 when Barbil-Joda was in grip of dengue, the role of then Collector of Keonjhar Dr Tirumallanaik in fighting against the epidemic was still fresh in the mind of the people.
Secretary of the Barbil Truck Owners’ Association Chandraprasad Gupta and Jashwavanta Singh of Braja Minerals said they were transporting the iron ore as per approval of the mining office and would stop doing so when asked.
When Contacted, Joint Director of Mines of Joda Circle Salil Kumar Behera said there were orders to stop the transportating but the same was not executed. However, RTO, Keonjhar Nirmal Mohanty told there was a plan to introduce the odd-even system to check the movement of trucks.