GUWAHATI, JULY 10: The coal smugglers are operating openly and extracting coal from the colliery of Margherita, Ledo area of upper Assam Tinsukia district.
Sources said rampant stealing of coals as been going on in Namdang, Borgolai, Tipong, Ledo OCP and Tirap collieries. Every day, the the coal thieves stealing huge amount of coals from the restricted collieries.
“The coal smugglers in the broad day light steal coals from the collieries showing thumb finger to the Coal India Limited employees. They are operating and stealing coals with the backing of ministers and MLAs. They are powerful people, we could not do anything to them because of their political backings,” said an employee of Coal India Limited in condition.
Sources said the coal smugglers under the political patronage has been running the illegal coal business by illegaly extracting coal from the collieries.
However, only Tikak colliery has been functioning but rest of the collieries are not functioning. The coal thieves have taken the advantage and every day stealing coals from the collieries.
“The coal thieves are using JCB, excavators to steal coals from the collieries. Rampant stealing of coals has been going on from Namdang, Borgolai, Tipong, Ledo OCP and Tirap collieries. The coal thieves are taking advantage and everyday stealing as much coal from the collieries with the support from the security guards, which are appointed by the CIL for security purposes. All the collieries are situated at Patkai hills,” said a source.
Sources said coal mafia B.Ganesh has been operating in the restricted coal mines of the region. With his muscle power and backing of local MLAs he has been lllegal extracting coal from the collieries.
“We have to climb around 1-2km to at Patkai hills to extract coal. We get Rs 450 per bag. We are doing this for many years. Our livelihood depends on coal. I am a permanent employee of a tea garden, so I climb one to two daily to extract coal but most of our friends climbs 4-5 times daily” said a worker, who was involved in illegal extracting of coal.
He said, “Two days ago a landslides was happened in the Patkai hills. We have to take another route to reach the hill top. Most of the people in Margherita, Ledo area were involved in illegal coal mining,”.
NEC presently operates in Tikak colliery in Margherita, Tinsukia with two opencast projects (OCPs), namely Tikak OCP and Tikak Extension OCP with a combined coal production capacity of 4 lakh tonne per annum.
On June 2020, North Eastern Coalfields India Limited Margherita ceased all coal production due to environmental concerns. But on March 26, this year Union Minister of coal and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Prahlad Joshi and Assam chief minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma resume the operation of Tikak colliery.
