Coal Ministry takes stock of rehabilitation plan of Jharia and Raniganj

New Delhi: The Ministry of Coal organised a day-long workshop on "Way ahead for Jharia and Raniganj Master Plan" at Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a Jharkhand-based subsidiary of Coal India on Wednesday. The workshop was aimed to expedite the rehabilitation of affected families to safer locations in Jharia (Jharkhand) and Raniganj (West Bengal).

To avoid any natural mishaps at Jharia and Raniganj coalfields in Jharkhand and West Bengal, a master plan was drawn to rehabilitate the affected families to a safer location. Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), both subsidiaries of Coal India, have active mines in Jharia and Raniganj respectively.

Ministry of Coal's Additional Secretary Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Joint Secretary BP Pati, Coal India's Director (Technical) Binay Dayal, Government of Jharkhand's Secretary (Mines) K Srinivasan, former Deputy Collector of Dhanbad Uma Shankar Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Dhanbad Sandeep Singh, CCL's Director (Technical) Bhola Singh, Asansol Durgapur Development Authority's (ADDA) Assistant Executive Officer Abhijit Samanta, BCCL's Director (Tech/Operations) Chanchal Goshwami, ECL's Director (Tech/Oprns) JP Gupta and other dignitaries from the Ministry of Coal, ISM-Dhanbad, BCCL, CCL and CIL were also present.

In the inaugural address, Tiwari pointed out that the government is very much concerned about the safety of humans living in coal-bearing areas in Jharia and Raniganj. He said that the company's top priority should be to douse fire in Jharia by introducing new technologies. He said that ECL had proactively doused active surface fire areas but fire remains challenge in Jharia.

Addressing the participants, Binay Dayal said that CIL is committed to solving the issue of fire in Jharkhand and many scientific studies have been carried out in the past. The government of Jharkhand's Secretary (Mines) K Srinivasan too emphasised the importance of minerals in the state including coking coal.

Prior to the technical session, CCL's CMD PM Prasad, who has been given additional charge of BCCL, welcomed dignitaries and senior officials for participating in the workshop.

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Two technical session was organised during day-long workshop. In the first session, the Ministry of Coal's Joint Secretary BP Pati chaired the first session in which present and former Deputy Collector of Dhanbad narrated the factual position of the Jharia Master Plan. They said the Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) is prioritizing tasks so that the affected families got to safer locations. Peeush Kumar was the co-chair of the technical session,

While BCCL's Director (Tech/Oprns) Chanchal Goshwami chaired the second scientific session in which Prof. of ISM-Dhanbad VK Sinha talked about the fire-fighting at Jharia- efforts made in the past. PK Dubey and Girish, both General Managers of BCCL, gave a presentation on the status report of shifting of BCCL families and its future plan.

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