When about a decade ago famous Rajhara coal mine was to shut down as water of Sadabah river, now disappeared, had flooded it completely, it was not the fault of the workers settled there in large number. Neither when the Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS) imposed Section-22 of the Mines Act-1952 and held the operational quarry site illegal.
The daily wage workers employed had even marched to Daltonganj in October 2013 demanding to reopen the mine and have held numerous agitations to push for their cause but in vein. “Once the area was abuzz and now you hear the dead silence. Most of the youths have migrated to other places in search of livelihood and those left here are women and are digging illegal coal and selling it,” says Ranjit Singh, a local.
The desperation to keep oven warm has taken so many lives. In February, this year two women were buried alive while two others sustained injuries as they were carrying out illegal mining in the closed dugs. Once producing soft smokeless coke of superior quality which was supplied to various places in India, including the bulk exported to Japan and Pakistan, the mine turned into a gaffe.
Remembering the sequence of events since then former employee and Trade Union leader Sitaram Singh says, “It was in the quarry 3 where mining was in operation. During monsoon large amount of water came into Sadabah river and due to faulty plant the bund between the quarry and the river broke. The quarry got flooded and just to burry the mistake committed, the then project office started excavating on a site adjacent to it without taking any clearance required under the mines safety. When the DGMS inspected he imposed Section-22 of the Mines Safety Act and ordered to shut down the quarrying activity completely.”
Apart from robbing the daily wage workers their jobs, other related economic activities in operation in about 150 villages—Pandwa, Rajhara, lohri, Pasu, Bankhetta, Kajari so name a few—came to grinding halt with little hope left for revival. On the contrary, gloom has become a thing of past for Sikni of lahehar, about 100 kms South of Rajhara. Queues of trucks, coal laden bicycles, and bunch of labourers sipping tea at roadside eateries have replaced everything.
“The mine was closed for last three years which has taken a toll on the entire social and economic live of the area. Now when it has been reopened on May 19, even naxal activities and involvements of locals into that have also drastically come down,” says euphoric project manager DP Singh.
Nearly 1,200 labourers, four shovel machines, one pay loader and several water tankers are on service with the churn in the economic activity that has positively affected over 40,000 families of Aan, Gardag, Mahutand and other villages. Post-resumption, as many as 61 registered delivery holders are operative here and over 300 trucks are being loaded everyday.
Even the coal grade of Sikni—it has reserve of 11 MT and life of 11 years—is not as good as of Rajhara and falls at 12th spot on the 1-17 grade points, the buoyancy has prompted owner of Sikni, the Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation, to approach NHAI for diversion of NH-75 so that it can be expanded further.
“Sikni has 410 acres of land. We are at present in the phase-3 which is on 133.473 acres. The Ranchi-Daltonganj highway falls in the 4th. The project plan is ready and we have sent it with diversion map to NHAI. The road has to be diverted by 10 kms and would cost `16 crore,” adds DP Singh.