Trade unions (TUs), except the Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress, are demanding that allocations for captive mining since 1993 be scrapped and coal stay out of private hands.
Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions, affiliated to the CPI(M), said the unions held a common position on the matter. “We are planning some action soon.”
‘Back to nationalisation’ is the common chant among them, and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), seen as a Right wing union, is ready to go to court for this.
About 313 allocations were made since 1993 of which 189 were to private firms. But the Coal Nationalisation Act was not changed to make allocations to private firms legal.
The notification was illegal as it was passed without any amendment to the Act, said Baijnath Rai, vice-president of BMS.
Communist Party general secretary Prakash Karat also made a case for giving all coal to Coal India Limited.
The coal workers’ outfit of the BMS is holding a country-wide protest today at the mines demanding cancellation of all allocations from 1993.
BMS’s coal outfit Akhil Bharatiya Koyla Khadan Mazdoor Maha Sangh had held a three-day workshop on the issue of allocations last month following the CAG report and has come out with a detailed report.
Next week, the union is meeting again in Kolkata to decide on course of action. The union is likely to call other coal unions and have a joint meeting on the issue.
Sources said that the union was also planning to move the Kolkata High Court against the 1993 notification issued by the Narasimha Rao Government.
The BMS is not alone in this. In fact in April 2010 a delegation of all unions including the coal unions of BMS and INTUC had met the Coal Secretary followed by a meeting with the Coal Minister and got assurances from both that the coal blocks that were not functional would be cancelled.
Today the Coal Minister after two years is making the same statement, says Rai.
The Sangh will demand improvement of the capacity of Coal India Limited that would make private blocks unnecessary. At present CIL is able to provide 84 per cent of the required coal. Why were 313 licences given for a gap of just 16 per cent? asks Rai.
Each union will have its own meeting followed by a joint meeting of the federation, says Rai.
All India Trade Union Congress secretary D L Sachdeva said that their coal union is also holding discussions on the issue and would soon come out with a statement.
There was no difference among us on this that we oppose the allocations to private companies, he said.
However INTUC president Sanjeeva Reddy begged to differ from the unions with whom he has currently joined hands to oppose Government policies in other matters. I dont believe that all allocations should be scrapped. An allocation once given cannot be taken back. But we agree that the allocations were not utilized fully. And we oppose that, he said.
Other unions are taking the INTUC position sympathetically saying that INTUC is beset with internal problems whcih prevent it from taking a position too contrary to that of the government.
A total of 313 allocations were made since 1993 of which 189 were to private companies. The cut-off point for them is the notification that was issued by the Narasimha Rao Government in 1993 enabling allocations of blocks to private companies which was not permitted under the Coal Nationalisation Act. Amendment to the Act was never carried out as there was stiff opposition from trade unions at that time.
Hence counting allocations from 1993 would include 313 blocks of which just 26 are active, while the rest are yet to begin operations. The notification was illegal as it was passed without any amendment to the Act itself which trade unions had successfully prevented, says Baijnath Rai, vice-president of BMS.
The same is echoed by Communist Party general secretary Prakash Karat in an article in his party's mouthpiece People's Democracy as he makes a case for reverting all coal to Coal India Limited.
Tapan Sen general secretary of the Centre for IndianTrade Unions affiliated to the CPM said that the unions held a common position on the matter. We are planning some action soon, he added.
