Talcher clashes hit CIL, NTPC operations

The forced shutdown of Coal India Ltd (CIL) mines in Odisha's Talcher coalfield, owing to violent clashes between two worker groups, continued for the second day on Saturday, leading to the loss of 4,00,000 tonnes of coal output and halting 1,000 Mw of power capacity operated by NTPC Ltd. The seven mines in Talcher are operated by CIL's subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL).

On Friday, about a thousand contract workers, protesting loss of jobs after a new contractor took over loading activities, had gone on a rampage, torching about 40 vehicles and destroying the MCL regional office, following the arrest of their leader and 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." Labour laws allowed a contractor to hire his own workers for mechanical works such as the upkeep of rail sidings, he added.

MCL accounts for less than a fourth of CIL's annual output of 452 million tonnes. Coal from the seven mines of the Talcher coalfields is supplied to six power stations of 500-Mw capacity each at NTPC's Kaniha power plant, as well as 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 MCL railway sidings. In the past month, the CIL management has had several meetings with workers. "We tried to convince them to let the operations resume, but failed," the MCL official said.