Rescue teams on Monday recovered the fourth body of the missing persons from the accident site at the Bharatpur OCP in Talcher Coalfields.
The body has been identified as Ramesh Dash, whowas working as a security guard of DK Dana Security Agency, a contractor in the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) mines.
Meanwhile, even as the the local villagers’ agitation continued for the 13th day on Monday, the employees of MCL along with Trade Union leaders met the Sub-Collector, Talcher and submitted a representation to restore normalcy in the Talcher Coalfields and resume production in the remaining eight unaffected mines of the company.
Later, a tri-partite meeting with the Sub-Collector was held with the striking villagers and MCL’s General Managers which came non-conclusive with the villagers sticking to their demands of a permanent job in MCL along with Rs 1crore as compensation to the kin of the deceased.
On the contrary, MCL clarified that the compensation it provides in death and injury cases is as per the law in force. “ The MCL has offered compensation as per the Employee Compensation Act besides a contractual job as governed by the High Powered Committee (HPC wages) which is much higher than any contractual job offered in any PSU,” said a MCL release.
“It may be recollected that a couple of days before, a similar incident involving death of a contract worker had taken place in another CPSU in the same district of Angul where the protestors agreed for a job in the contract work under skilled category as compensation besides compensation as per the Employee Compensation Act,” added the release.
In the meantime, due to the ongoing stalemate in the mines and halt in coal production and supply, the crisis for the power plants in the State and outside has been looming large. While NTPC and Nalco have been running much below their capacity, the plants in North East and southern parts of the country have been facing acute shortage of coal.