MCL Kaniha project oustees unwilling to cede land

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited’s (MCL) plan to kick off the 10 million tonne per annum Kaniha open cast coal mining project at Talcher Coalfields has suffered further delay. The villagers to be displaced by the project are reluctant to cede their land for the project unless their demand for 41 jobs under the ‘C’ category is fulfilled by the company.

The project has already suffered delay for about two years even though two other projects named Kulda and Bhubaneswari which were envisaged at the same time have started production a year ago. The tenants belonging to Jarada of Kaniha area do not allow the MCL authorities to start mining on their land unless these cases related to the 41 jobs under the ‘C’ category are cleared by the company.

”So far 441 job cases out of the total of 482 jobs which were demanded have been cleared by the company in consultation with the Angul district authorities as per the eligibility in that village”, said an MCL official associated with the project.

The company authorities are helpless in providing jobs to the remaining oustees as they belong to ‘C’ category under the 1989 rehabilitation policy of the Orissa government. A person losing total homestead land but not losing total agricultural land is placed in the ‘C’ category. MCL has stopped giving jobs to the oustees in the ‘C’ category from 2005 following orders from the government, said the official.

MCL authorities said that they are ready to provide 41 jobs to the ‘C’ category of land oustees if they have lost all their all homestead land at Jarada, but the relaxation should be a one time affair and should not be an antecedent for others to follow. MCL is in favour of arbitration by any government body to settle these cases as a one time relaxation for the ‘C’ category oustees.

The Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) which should have taken the decision on this issue has not failed to convene any meeting since November last year.

In 2008-09, the MCL authorities had fixed a production target of one million tonne from the Kaniha project.