Contractual workers strike paralyses Talcher coalfield

Thousands of contractual workers engaged in Talcher coalfield of Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd (MCL) struck work on Thursday to press for their demand for higher wages paralysing the coal production and dispatch.

This has resulted in no coal dispatch to any power station inside and outside of the state from Talcher which provides coal to eight states.

“The total production loss is about 1.9 lakh tonne from all the eight open cast mines and there was no coal dispatch from the field due to strike by contractual workers,” said the Director (project), MCL, A K Singh. The contractual workers mainly consisting of drivers and helpers engaged in coal production and dispatch activities accused the MCL authorities of not implementing the assurance given by them for better wages .The agitators demanded monthly wage of more than Rs 15,000 from the current Rs 7,000. They are also highly peeved over the non-payment of Rs 1,000 to them during the puja as was last year and mutually agreed upon. Local MLA, Braja Kishore Pradhan expressing support to the cause of the workers, urged Coal India Limited and MCL authorities to immediately fulfill the genuine demands of the workers who are the backbone of the coal production. He said, there are 22,000 contractual workers working in Talcher along with regular employees.