The country may face a daily shortage of about one lakh tonnes of coal from the Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl) in view of the bandh call from Friday given by villagers in Angul district demanding resettlement at coal-bearing lands instead of the existing site provided the State Government.
The protest is likely to hamper coal production and supply to the power producers in and outside Odisha, many of which have reached critical level coal stock, warned an MCl release on Thursday.
The MCl, the second largest coal producing company in the country, had to take a tough decision of terminating 126 people, who were provided jobs against their lands at Hensmul village near Bhubaneswari Opencast after they continued to obstruct mining operations.
As per the recommendation of civil administration, the company had issued final notice to 285 villagers, who were provided all benefits to vacate their dwellings. While rest of people shifted to Gurjang, the R&R site provided by the Government and developed at a cost of Rs 3.9 crore by the MCl, 122 (four shifted subsequently and were reinstated by the company) continued to obstruct mining operations.
There is no provision to shift people from one coal-bearing land to another. The villagers were informed about the future expansion of the mines, but all in vain. The last tripartite meeting between villagers, district administration and MCl management on June 7, which was also attended by company CMD, ended fruitless.
The company offered many options to the villagers, including shifting to any place of their choice other than coal-bearing area and cash compensation in lieu of authorised plot at R&R site. The Director General Mines Safety has already raised safety concerns with regard to continuous occupation of some villagers staying near the mining projects.
Since many power plants across the country are facing fuel shortage, the MCl has appealed to the villagers not to resort to protests causing obstruction to coalmining and adding to the woes of general people.