The agitation against proposed coal mines of NTPC in Barkagaon and Keredari area is becoming stronger day by day. Some days ago the CMD of NTPC who visited Barkagaon also faced the protest of these agitators. Reports from the areas suggest that the villagers keep the work stopping here by seizing the machines and stalling work by troubling company officials.
Till last month the situation was not so grim but as the officials of THES Company, an Australian company whom NTPC has given the contract of mining, reached here, things started worsening. Earlier, the villagers were leading the agitation but now MlA Yogendra Sao has come into picture and after his entry things are certainly becoming tougher for the officials of THES Company.
NTPC has been allotted Pankri-Barwadih and Keredari coal mining projects in these two blocks. After several rounds of talks with the villagers, politicians, State Government and other important people the NTPC management made an attractive package for the land-losers. MlA Yogendra Sao was also a party in this agreement. After NTPC package the leaders including Sao started demanding similar package from other companies who had been allotted coal blocks here.
After acquiring sufficient land NTPC stepped ahead for mining and gave the work to a mining expert Australian company THES. In the meantime the NTPC remained in close contact of the displaced and landowners through their community development programs. That is why when it was difficult for other company officials to enter into the area NTPC officials freely roamed in the rural areas of these blocks.
Though the NTPC officials, posted at Hazaribagh, Barkagaon and Keredari are not ready to speak anything about this growing agitation but the sources say that the local officials too agree that it all happened due to bureaucratic behavior of THES officials.