Jharia coal belt fire rehabilitation plan cleared
The package, till date, one of the biggest worked out for rehabilitation and compensation by any public sector, was hanging fire since 1999 and would be implemented over the next 10 years till 2018.
The Jharkhand government gave the nod to the package on Wednesday when the Coal India chairman P S Bhattacharya and the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) chairman A K Pal met the Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu for a final passage.
CIL chairman, Partha S Bhattacharya said, "Now that the package has been cleared by the Jharkhand government a huge task lay in front of BCCL and the Jharkhand Rehabilitation Development Authority ( JRDA) to carry out the compensation cum rehabilitation job.".
The rehabilitation cum compensation package consists of setting up about 79,000 housing units avoiding the coal fire zones and in safe places for the 4 lakh victims.
While BCCL will set up 25,000 houses the remaining 54,000 will be set up by non BCCL entities which could be housing development corporations and also other private parties.
The package was revised twice in 2003 and 2006 and was confronted with a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court with the director general of mines safety (DGMS) playing an active role for its passage.
As for the financial disbursements, Rs 4258 crore would be spent on rehabilitation and compensation measures and Rs 2100 crore would go in for fire fighting in the coal beds of Jharia coalfields.
Bhattacharya said that about 5 townships would be built with the money to rehabilitate around 4 lakh people. The townships will be set up on the North side of Jharia coalfields away from fire and subsidence assault.
As per the package, BCCL would also be doing the fire fighting job, which has been raging in the mines for the last 90 years while the rehabilitation work would primarily be carried out by the JRDA.
The government sponsored social infrastructure and housing development schemes like Indira Awas Yojana ( IAY) will be put into operation for encroachers who have forced their way on to the government land in the mining areas.
Authorised house-owners will be given properly built residences.
Jharia, according to CIL sources, is the most exploited coalfield because of its available metallurgical grade coal reserve.
Mining in this coalfield was initially in private hands in the opencast and under ground models.
CMPDI findings show that extraction of thick seam by caving in past shallow depths has damaged ground surface in the form of subsidence and formation of pot holes or cracks reaching the surface resulting in spontaneous heating of coal seams and fire.
The coalfield is presently engulfed with about 70 mine fires, spread over an area of 17.32 square kilometre, blocking mining of 636 million tonnes of coking coal and 1238 million ton of non-coking coal.
Around 34.97 square kilometre of Jharia coalfield is presently under subsidence.