Agitations take a toll on MCL production

SAMBALPUR: Frequent protests by locals over fiddling issues have adversely affected production and functioning of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).

Some of MCL’s coal mines have remained closed for more than a month now and with absence of Government support, it seems the company is on its own to tackle the crisis.Situation at the company is set to become more critical as yet another five-day long trade union strike by Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) was launched from Monday over several demands of workers. Sources said owing to the strike, mining operations including transportation of coal have been affected in as many as 11 mines.

Already lagging in terms of production, the company is around 20 per cent behind target and the prospects of making up seems bleak in the current scenario. On an average, agitations have led to loss of 350 production hours in the 11 mines between April 2019 till date.

While strikes and shutting down of mines have been disturbing the company’s mining operations,  they have also affected several other allied sectors. To make matters worse, there is no mechanism to control the deliberate attempts of some vested interests to stop the mines from operating.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) too has been giving a cold shoulder to MCL by not deploying personnel of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at its installations. The company has been denied CISF cover despite being eligible for it on the basis of joint survey reports and pre-induction formalities that been conducted multiple times.

MCL is the highest profit-earning Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) in Odisha and listed at ninth rank in the top 10 PSUs of India. Besides being the top contributor to the Odisha’s exchequer, MCL’s contribution to District Mineral Fund (DMF) in Angul, Jharsuguda and Sundergarh is more than `500 crore during financial year of 2018-19. It had produced over 144 million tonne coal during 2018-19 with a net turnover of `15,325 crore and profit before tax (PBT) of `9,281 crore.