With an aim to expedite rehabilitation of affected families to safer locations in Jharia in Jharkhand and Raniganj in West Bengal a workshop organised on Wednesday by Ministry of Coal (MoC), Government of India, on “way ahead for Jharia and Raniganj Master Plan” at Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a Jharkhand-based subsidiary of Coal India Limited.
To avoid any natural mishaps at Jharia and Raniganj coalfields in Jharkhand and West Bengal, a master plan was drawn to rehabilitate the affected families to a safer location. Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), both subsidiaries of Coal India- have active mines in Jharia and Raniganj respectively.
Additional Secretary, MoC, Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Joint Secretary, MoC, BP Pati, Director Technical, CIL, Binay Dayal, Secretary Mines, Government of Jharkhand, K Srinivasan, former Deputy Collector, Dhanband, Uma Shankar Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Dhanbad, Sandeep Singh, Director technical (P&P), CCL, Bhola Singh, Assistant Executive Officer, Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA), Abhijit Samanta, Director (Technical/Oprations), BCCL, Chanchal Goshwami, Director (Technical/Oprations), ECL, JP Gupta, Professor RN Bhattacharjee, ISM, Dhanbad, Professor, VK Sinha, ISM, Dhanband, General Manager, Anandjee Prasad, CMPDIL, Chief Manager, Peeyush Kumar, posted in MoC and other dignitaries were present during the workshop.
In the inaugural address, Tiwari pointed out that the Government is very much concerned about the safety of humans living in coal-bearing areas in Jharia and Raniganj. He said that the company’s top priority should be to douse fire in Jharia by introducing new technologies.
Tiwari said that ECL had proactively doused active surface fire areas but fire remains a challenge in Jharia.
Addressing the participants, Dayal said CIL is committed to solve the issue of fire in Jharkhand and many scientific studies have been carried out in the past. Srinivasan too emphasized the importance of minerals in the state including coking coal.
Prasad also has additional charge of BCCL, welcomed dignitaries and senior officials for participating in the workshop.
Two technical sessions were organized during the day-long workshop. In the first session, Pati chaired the first session in which present and former Deputy Collector Dhanbad narrated the factual position of Jharia Master Plan. They said the Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) is prioritizing tasks so that the affected families get to safer locations. Kumar was the co-chair of the technical session,
Director (Tech/Oprns), BCCL, Chanchal Goshwami chaired the second scientific session in which Professor ISM, Dhanbad VK Sinha talked about the fire fighting at Jharia- efforts made in the past. PK Dubey and Girish- both General Managers, BCCL- gave a presentation on the status report of shifting of BCCL families and its future plan.