Talcher clashes: CIL loses 400,000 tonne coal, NTPC's units shut down

Over 1,000 contract workers, protesting job loss had gone on a rampage torching 40 vehicles and damaging MCL regional office

Violent clashes between two worker groups at Talcher coalfield in Odisha, operated by Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL), continued for the second day on Saturday washing away 400,000 tonne of coal output and causing forced shutdown of 1,000 Megawatt of power capacity operated by NTPC Ltd.

Over a thousand contract workers, protesting loss of jobs after a new contractor took over loading activities using new workers, had gone on a rampage torching around 40 vehicles and damaging MCL regional office on Friday following the arrest of their leader, local legislator Braja Kishor Pradhan.

“It has become a major problem. I do not see this ending soon,” a senior MCL official told Business Standard. “The old workers are now asking the CIL management to enforce their demands upon the new contractor – something we cannot legally do.” The current labor laws allow a contractor to hire his own workers for mechanical works like upkeep of rail sidings, he added.

MCL alone accounts for less than a fourth of CIL’s 452 MT annual output. Coal from the seven mines of Talcher coalfields is supplied to six units of 500 Mw capacity each at NTPC’s Kaniha power plant and units run by Aluminium producer Nalco. MCL officials had managed to open three mines – Bhubaneshwari, Kaniha and Lingaraj – under police protection.

On October 8, the agitating workers had disrupted operations at two Mahanadi Coalfields railway sidings. The CIL management has had several meetings with workers in the past one month. We tried to convince them to let the operations resume but failed, the MCL official said.