Over 600 workers working at one of the patches of Asia’s biggest coal mine at Magadh coal project at Tandwa in Chatra district were left jobless as the VPR Company, engaged in the excavation of coal, locked its office notifying to their workers, ‘No Work No Pay’ on Sunday.
The company also stuck a notice on the wall which stated that due to unavailability of land production will be stopped for 2 December onwards.
According to the locals, Coal productions stopped at Magadh Project due to land hurdles. They said that the company needed land for keeping its overburden and other use but the raiyyats were demanding jobs and compensation.
“Now we need about 80 acres of land to continue our production. The production work cannot be continued as land is not available in the village,” said an official on the site requesting anonymity.
“This time problem has been arising due to not getting enough land for the safekeeping of mining equipments as well as OB.
So we have announced the implementation of no work no pay for the workers from Sunday,” he said.
When contacted Chatra DC JK Singh said over phone, “We do not have any such information that works is hindered at the Magadh Coal project due to land hurdle.
Neither CCL nor the project officials have given me such information. If they have an issue of land then they should come to me.”
“Though, on Sunday the project had some land issue might be related with forest was solved after the intervention of SDO and SDPO,” the DC said adding, “In my knowledge work is going on at the project.”
Notably, Magadh coal project, an open cast mine of Central Coalfields (CCL), is operating on nearly a hundred acres of land here. According to the experts, there is an estimated stock of 351 metric tonnes of coal in the entire Magadh project area.
The Magadh Project was started in 2015 while coal excavation work at Kundi village was continued since 2016 but the company had to stop the work over dozens of times due to the scarcity of land there.