"Outsource" help for Coal India to combat strike

Even as the Coal India Limited (CIL) employees resorted to a five-day Nation-wide strike, outsourcing practice had come as a breather in country's largest coal producing company - the South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL).

The production in SECL - the flagship entity of the CIL having 89 coalmines in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh - was partially affected on the first day of the strike. The headquarters of SECL is located in Chhattisgarh and it has been the largest coal production company in the country with an annual production of about 122 million tonnes.

"The company had outsourced most of the works in producing coal to private companies that had helped to continue with the production though the regular employees went on strike," a senior company official told Business Standard. The production in Gevra project, the largest open cast mines in the country located in Korba district, was also partially affected.

As against the daily production of 130,000 Tonnes of coal in Gevra project, coal production of 100,000 Tonnes was reported today. In Kusmunda project, 60,000 Tonnes of coal was produced today against the average production of 75,000 Tonnes. Similarly, a production of 60,000 Tonnes of coal was reported in Dipka where daily average production was 80,000 Tonnes.

The digging work in the project had also been handed over to the private companies and it had not been disrupted in the strike called "disinvestment and restructuring of CIL". The workers of the private companies outsourced for the job had been engaged in the production under the supervision of senior officials, the official said. The loading work was however affected on Tuesday.

Reports reaching from Korba and other mines said that coal could not be loaded neither in the rail wagons nor trucks.

The senior officials had been asked to take the command and necessary action to restore loading of coal for undisrupted dispatch.

The officials are skeptical of continuing the practice for long. "It is okay that we will continue the work with contract labourers as of now, but it will not be possible if the strike continues and stretch beyond announced five days," one of the officials said.