JHARIA: The earth beneath your feet is hot as pan, ready to crumble like cookies any moment. You can sense the vibrations of raging flames underneath and watch fumes emanating through cracks and fissures on ground here and there. The air is loaded with a pungent odour of burning sulphur ammonia and bitumen and a waft of colourless, odourless gas braces your face at intervals, pushing you to the brink of losing consciousness.
Welcome to Jharia — the city of black diamond for some and the ‘hell on earth’ for others.Boasting the richest reserves of high-quality bitumen used in the production of coke to fuel steel industry, the region is also known for the century-old underground coal fire that has resulted in extreme damage to life and property since 1916.
Elections come and go, govts change but little has changed for the residents, most of whom have accepted the impending catastrophe as their fate. “They ask us to relocate to the Belgaria colony, but we have to eat to survive.
What are we supposed to do there to earn a living,” asks Santoshi Devi (name changed on request), a woman from among the four families who have refused to vacate their mud shanties in Basti No.7 of Bastakola colliery. She has witnessed her neighbour, Mandalji, a shopkeeper, falling into a crevice on the ground a few months ago and burning his feet completely.
People in the locality blame these families and hundreds of those living a few hundred metres far from the fire spot for “risking their lives out of their greed for stealing coal”. “You can see heaps of coal being fired in and around to make coke-coal. They will sell it to the market and earn a living. If they are relocated to Belgaria, the resettlement colony made by Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), they will lose their livelihood,” said a young man from one of those families who have refused to relocate.
Rupesh Kumar, 11, who has stopped going to school now, also engages in picking coal. For the poor in colliery, earning through coal picking depends on number of hands engaged.
Jharia Coalfield Bachao Samity president Rajiv Sharma, however, refuses to accept the theory that BCCL has given ample facilities to relocate the people. The Samity wrote a letter to the principal secretary at the Prime Minister’s office last month with a list of suggestions on what must be done for the Jharia residents so that they can relocate. Activists believe underground fire is a ‘trump card’ in the hands of BCCL and govt to displace the people without compensating them adequately.
“In the name of underground fire and lurking danger to lives, people are being asked to vacate their land and go to the ‘cage-like-houses’ in Belgaria on which thousands of crores of rupees have been spent by the Jharia Rehabilitation Development Authority without applying mind,” Sharma said.
He added that the land losers must be compensated under Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
Sharma’s demand is corroborated by the fire-affected people in other regions of Jharia as well. Coal transport machine driver Anil Kumar Thakur believes the alternate arrangement provided to them is not sufficient. “I have no complaints with the company I work for but what about the govt. They have left us at the mercy of coal companies. Shouldn’t they intervene and set a standard of compensation,” he asked.
Thakur has decided to exercise his franchise on Saturday and ensure there is some change.
“We can’t say our elected representatives do not come here. Even the Union minister (Prahlad Joshi) had visited. Rahul Gandhi came here to talk to the coal miners but these visits have not solved our problems,” he said.
BCCL public relations officer Samiran Dutta said the tenure of the old policy is about to end, and a new draft policy with better provisions is being considered.
“The matter has reached the Cabinet after a presentation before the PM. Once it gets approval, we can expect a rehabilitation and resettlement plan that suits the interest of those affected by fire,” he said.
With inputs from Divy Khare
Welcome to Jharia — the city of black diamond for some and the ‘hell on earth’ for others.Boasting the richest reserves of high-quality bitumen used in the production of coke to fuel steel industry, the region is also known for the century-old underground coal fire that has resulted in extreme damage to life and property since 1916.
Elections come and go, govts change but little has changed for the residents, most of whom have accepted the impending catastrophe as their fate. “They ask us to relocate to the Belgaria colony, but we have to eat to survive.
What are we supposed to do there to earn a living,” asks Santoshi Devi (name changed on request), a woman from among the four families who have refused to vacate their mud shanties in Basti No.7 of Bastakola colliery. She has witnessed her neighbour, Mandalji, a shopkeeper, falling into a crevice on the ground a few months ago and burning his feet completely.
People in the locality blame these families and hundreds of those living a few hundred metres far from the fire spot for “risking their lives out of their greed for stealing coal”. “You can see heaps of coal being fired in and around to make coke-coal. They will sell it to the market and earn a living. If they are relocated to Belgaria, the resettlement colony made by Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), they will lose their livelihood,” said a young man from one of those families who have refused to relocate.
Rupesh Kumar, 11, who has stopped going to school now, also engages in picking coal. For the poor in colliery, earning through coal picking depends on number of hands engaged.
Jharia Coalfield Bachao Samity president Rajiv Sharma, however, refuses to accept the theory that BCCL has given ample facilities to relocate the people. The Samity wrote a letter to the principal secretary at the Prime Minister’s office last month with a list of suggestions on what must be done for the Jharia residents so that they can relocate. Activists believe underground fire is a ‘trump card’ in the hands of BCCL and govt to displace the people without compensating them adequately.
“In the name of underground fire and lurking danger to lives, people are being asked to vacate their land and go to the ‘cage-like-houses’ in Belgaria on which thousands of crores of rupees have been spent by the Jharia Rehabilitation Development Authority without applying mind,” Sharma said.
He added that the land losers must be compensated under Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
Sharma’s demand is corroborated by the fire-affected people in other regions of Jharia as well. Coal transport machine driver Anil Kumar Thakur believes the alternate arrangement provided to them is not sufficient. “I have no complaints with the company I work for but what about the govt. They have left us at the mercy of coal companies. Shouldn’t they intervene and set a standard of compensation,” he asked.
Thakur has decided to exercise his franchise on Saturday and ensure there is some change.
“We can’t say our elected representatives do not come here. Even the Union minister (Prahlad Joshi) had visited. Rahul Gandhi came here to talk to the coal miners but these visits have not solved our problems,” he said.
BCCL public relations officer Samiran Dutta said the tenure of the old policy is about to end, and a new draft policy with better provisions is being considered.
“The matter has reached the Cabinet after a presentation before the PM. Once it gets approval, we can expect a rehabilitation and resettlement plan that suits the interest of those affected by fire,” he said.
With inputs from Divy Khare
