Thousands of workers of four trade unions, CITU, INTUC, AITUC and HMS, protested Union Coal Secretary Anil Swaroop’s visit to Talcher by showing him black flags on Thursday. They shouted slogans against the Central Government’s move to privatise coalmining and cried “ Go back” in front of the Jagannath Project GM Office and the project’s guest house where Swaroop was lodged. Ananda Acharya from CITU, Soubhagya Pradhan from INTUC, Sankar Behera from HMS and Chaturbhuj Das from AITUC led the workers.
Notably, workers here have become restive once again after a week-long national level strike in January following the NDA Government’s bid to allow 10 per cent outsourcing in mining in the Coal India limited mines.