Coal India and its subsidiaries have destroyed 60,000 hectares of land by abandoning large mines, but when it comes to reclaiming the land, the Centre has passed the buck to the states concerned.
Coal India and its subsidiaries have destroyed 60,000 hectares of land by abandoning large mines, but when it comes to reclaiming the land, the Centre has passed the buck to the states concerned.
An investigation by DNA recently exposed how Coal India Limited (CIL) had laid waste large tracks in a few states. Properly reclaimed, this land could be used to set up industrial projects.
A number of steel, power, chemical and automobile projects have been stalled in West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh by anti-land-acquisition agitations. Some of these projects cumulatively need about 8,000 hectares of land.
Meanwhile, Left leaders and activists have demanded that the Centre take suo motu action and force CIL to reclaim the mines.
Congratulating DNA for the report, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said she would take up the issue with both prime minister Manmohan Singh and coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal.
However, reacting to the story, Jaiswal tried to pass the buck to the state governments. “We are making all efforts to reclaim the land. Even if don’t reclaim the land, the state governments has to reclaim it and use for industrial purposes,” he said and added that he has written to various state governments in this regard but to no avail.
Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general at the Centre for science and Environment, said it is the responsibility of CIL to reclaim the land and not of the state government. “Reclamation will require enormous amount of money. Why should state governments spend so much of money
to reclaim land wasted by CIL?”
By abandoning the mines, CIL is not only wasting land but also playing with the safety and livelihood of the people. Karat said, “In abandoned open cast (OCPs), some coal is left which catches fire due to availability of free oxygen. e this has resulted in serious fire in Jharia (Jharkhand)”
Convenor of Jharia Bachao Andolan Ashok Agarwal said that many of underground mines (UG) in Jharia were converted to OC mines. These OC mines were not reclaimed because of which coal caught fire due to exposure of oxygen.
“More than one lakh families have been affected due to fire in Jharia, all thanks to the policy of extracting coal using OC mines and leaving them abandoned,” Agarwal said.
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