May 17, 2016 became a day, which will be marked in history for NTPC as coal excavation work starts in its first and ambitious coal project situated at Barkagaon and Keredari blocks of Hazaribagh district. In 2004, NTPC which is known for its power projects, had entered into the venture of starting coal production with the approval of Government of India to meet its coal requirement.
Since last 12 years the officials of both NTPC and district administration were trying their best to make this project operational but due to several hindrances it got so much delayed. On Tuesday amidst mild protest the NTPC officials along with district officials once again tried to start excavation work and this time they succeeded as the leaders of the protestors Ex-MlA Yogendra Sao and MlA Nirmala Devi didn’t turned up to lead the innocent villagers.
At about 1:30 noon coal excavation work started at all the five sites of NTPC Coal Projects situated at Chirubarwadih of Barkagaon block and Itiz of Keredari block. The experts of coal excavation work of Triveni Sainik Company started work for NTPC amidst mild protest of the villagers who were dispersed by the police by the use of light force.
The protestors were waiting for their leader but they didn’t turned up. The district and NTPC officials said them to talk directly with them and not via their leaders. Finally they agreed and the officials congratulated each other as coal production started there without any more problem. However when the police force was returning from the site stone picketing took place near Barkagaon in which the driver of the police vehicle got injured.
The background of today’s success was actually the failure of economic blockade call given by Sao couple some days ago. People of both Barkagaon and Keredari rejected their call which boosted the moral of both NTPC and district officials and then today they once again went to the sites with preparation to start coal excavation and succeeded.
On this occasion, Executive Director NTPC Coal Projects PN Prasad, GM SK Tiwari, BDO Ashok Chopra, CO Santosh Singh, inspector Akhilesh Singh, OIC Ramdayal Munda, PRO of Triveni Sainik Company SD Singh, PN Das and others were present.