Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 6, 2015 :

Talcher Coalfields produces about 2.4 lakh tonnes coal in day, on which company pays about Rs 3.7 crore — Royalty, SST/VAT and Entry Tax — to Odisha state exchequer and Rs 3.86 crore – Excise Duty, CST, Stowing Excise Duty and Clean Energy Cess — to the Centre exchequer.

As per reports from Talcher areas, locals reached MCL mines early on Wednesday and brought all the mines to halt. Even staff and officers were forced to vacate the offices of Area General Managers. However, no untoward incident was reported from any Area of the MCL.

The strike was called in support of villagers of Bhalugadia in the de-allocated Gopalprasad West coal block the periphery of MCL’s Hingula Area that was allocated to Public Private joint venture MJSJ Ltd.

In demand for employment against their land which was allocated to MJSJ Ltd along with Utkal-A Block, the villagers of Bhalugadia had stopped the 12-million-tonne-Hingula-project since April 15, 2015.

At least 128 Hectares out of a total of 290 Hectares of the Bhalugadia village in Gopalprasad West Block — originally acquired by the company — had been allocated along with Utkal-A block to MJSJ Ltd – a joint venture [JV] of MCL, Jindal Power, Jindal Steel, and Shyam DRI launched in 2005. This was subsequently de-allocated after Supreme Court verdict last year. While the Utkal-A block featured in the list of de-allocated blocks, status of 128 hectares land of Bhalugudia village lies unclear.

Whereas jobs for 56 persons have been offered to the families of Bhalugadia village having land under MCL, the operations at Hingula Area were stopped by villagers demanding employment to remaining 62 families of the village in the company whose land was reallocated to the MJSJ Ltd.

“MCL is not in a position to offer jobs to the villagers of Bhalugadia whose land falls under the de allocated coal block”, a MCL spokesperson said.

The company that had produced over 121 million tons during the last financial year, posting an increase of 11 million ton over previous years, has set an ambitious target of producing 150 million tons during current financial year.

The closure of Talcher mines would result in loss of output to the tune of 2.4 lakh tons oc coal daily, which feeds the several power stations of NTPC (Kaniha), TTPS Talcher, NTPC (Simadhari), National Aluminium company Ltd [NALCO], Jindal Steel & Power, Angul (Odisha), GMR Kamlanga Energy Ltd., Sterlite Energy Ltd, TENGEDCO (Tamilnadu), NTECL (Vallur, Tamilnadu), Andhra Pradesh Generation Company Ltd (APGENCO), KPCL (Karnataka), Adani Power Limited (Gujarat), Haldia Energy Limited (West Bengal), MAHAGENCO (Maharashra), WBPDCL (West Bengal) Talwandisabo Power Limited (Punjab), etc. in the country, a press statement by the MCL said.