In the wee hours of June 20, Meraj Sheikh’s family of four, living next to an open-cast mining pit in Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal, was woken up by a loud thud. Everything around them seemed to be crumbling down. “The ground on which our house stood started to cave in. I rushed out of the house with my two daughters, but my wife was trapped under the collapsing walls,” horrified Sheikh narrated to Gaon Connection.
Soon he learnt the Jambad open-cast mining pit of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, had left a deep crater engulfing his house and severely damaging surrounding houses. Surface cracks had appeared around the periphery of the accident site located 60-70 metres from the edge of the mining pit.
By 9.30 in the morning, a rescue operation was launched by the ECL’s Sitarampur Rescue Station to find Sheikh’s wife Shannaz Begum. He sent off the daughters to a relative’s house. For the next nine days, the rescue personnel cut through the top soil and underlying rocks around the accident site using two soil machines, a bulldozer and a payloader. Meanwhile, Sheikh lied to the girls and told them their mother had been rescued and was undergoing treatment at a hospital “to console them.”
But, on June 29 night, Begum’s body was fished out from a depth of 90 feet and Sheikh’s world collapsed. He had to tell the truth to his young daughters. “I don’t know how to face them now,” he told Gaon Connection, struggling to control his tears.
While Sheikh is still coming to terms with losing his wife in a land subsidence accident, Coal India trade unions have launched a three-day strike beginning July 2 to protest against the Centre’s recent decision to allow commercial coal mining in the country.
All major Coal India unions active in the coal belt, barring those connected with the Trinamool Congress, have formed a joint action committee that is coordinating the ongoing strike in the Raniganj Coalfields area, the birthplace of coal-mining in India.
On June 18, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the auction of 41 blocks of coal for commercial mining in the country. While launching the auction process, Modi called it a “big step” and a “win-win situation for every stakeholder. The market for coal is now open. It will help all sectors.” Three states — Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh — have already raised objections on the coal blocks auction.
The recent land subsidence near coal mine pit has affected around 250 families in Jambad more (junction). Most of them are descendants of the erstwhile ECL employees who have continued to live in the company quarters declared unsafe several years ago because of the expansion of the open-cast pit.
As per media reports, ECL officials have blamed the recent accident on incessant rainfall a day before the subsidence happened. But, local people allege in the recent years the mine had expanded in their direction, thus disturbing the ground on which their houses stood.
A team from Peace India, an Asansol-based non-profit, visited the site the day the accident occurred and met with the ECL officials and affected families. “On June 22, we emailed a letter to the top officials of ECL and Coal India, as well as coal minister Prahlad Joshi demanding an investigation into the incident. Five days later, on June 22, and received a 50-page inquiry report from the ECL,” Firoz Khan, founder-president of Peace India told Gaon Connection.
The inquiry report, a copy of which is available with Gaon Connection, notes the ECL had done everything in its purview, including sending affected families multiple notices and requesting them to vacate the premises during visits to the area.It goes on to suggest the company has no liability in the incident and is not bound to provide compensation or rehabilitation.
Coal mine expansion
“There were five underground mines operational in the Jambad area since the pre-nationalisation days. The Jambad OCP became operational around 1994-95, incorporating the areas of all these underground mines,” Sanjay Singh, who lives 1.5 km from the accident site told Gaon Connection. “Around 450 families lost their land and a stadium had to be demolished to facilitate the open-cast pit. Many families who lost land, or lived in ECL quarters within the mining area, were rehabilitated in Jambad more,” he added.
Rehabilitation in Jambad more had three components. “Permanent employees of ECL who lived in quarters within the mining area were rehabilitated in two-storied buildings in New Colony. Families that lived in the project area but did not have any sustained livelihood were provided houses in Bekaari Dhouda [neighbourhood of the unemployed], whereas others from the backward communities like Bhunia and Majhi [scheduled tribe] were provided housing adjacent to the junction,” Ram Chandra Singh, general secretary of Colliery Mazdoor Sabha (AITUC) and a senior trade union leader told Gaon Connection.
As the open-cast pit expanded through the 2000s, the Jambad more area housing ECL’s Kajora area office and the rehabilitated families was declared unsafe for habitation. People were asked to vacate the premises on several occasions.
“In 2013, the ECL’s Kajora area office issued a circular saying it would have to gradually close down the Jambad open-cast mine as there was no space to conduct mining operations in the Jambad more area,” said Sanjay Singh. “But in subsequent years, they expanded the mine in other directions and kept asking people to move out without offering any compensation or rehabilitation,” he added.
Three years back, the ECL’s Kajora Area office was shifted from Jambad more to a location along NH-2. Residents were also asked to move out. But they stayed put saying they had nowhere else to go and demanded rehabilitation at an alternate site.
“Like Sheikh, who lost his wife in the subsidence, most people living in the quarters now are daily-wage earners. They have stayed on in dangerous circumstances because electricity and water connections are available on the premises, and because daily wage work is easily available in the vicinity,” informed Ram Chandra, who has been a part of the recent struggle for rehabilitation of the mining-affected families in Jambad more. “There are families living here for 20-30 years and have no money to buy land elsewhere. They cannot afford new water and electricity connections,” he added.
Demand for rehabilitation and compensation
Whereas the company claims it has no liability, the local residents of Jambad more refuse to sit back. On June 22, they met JC Rai, general Manager of ECL’s Kajora Area office, and other company officials, to demand rehabilitation for Sheikh’s family. The demand includes an ECL quarter at an alternative site, a job for him as a private security guard, and a monetary compensation of Rs 30 lakh against his dead wife.
As per the copy of the minutes of the meeting, countersigned by all those present including Sheikh, “one dependent of the concerned family will be deployed in the private security firm” and the demand for monetary compensation would be decided by the “competent authority.”
The Jambad mine comes under Raniganj Coalfields where land subsidence incidents are frequent owing to the presence of a large number of underground mines that have not been filled back as per the requirements.
Within two weeks of the Jambad accident, two more instances of subsidence occurred in Raniganj town and in the Barabani block of Paschim Bardhaman. Although no one was killed in these incidents, two dumpers used to transport coal were buried in the cave-in in Barabani. A driver of the dumper was rescued the same day and subsequently treated at a local hospital.
“When Haradhan Roy [Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)] raised a hue and cry about land subsidence cases in the 1990s, the government allocated Rs 200 crore for a survey. But the findings were never made public, and after Roy’s passing, the movement lost steam,” said Ram Chandra Singh.
Trade union leaders including Sudipta Pal from the ECL Thika Shramik Adhikar Union (ECL Contract Workers’ Rights Union) fear the recent move of the Centre to allow commercial mining in the country could worsen the circumstances of those dependent on coal-mining.
“Although public sector units like ECL routinely deny workers their rights, including social security measures, rehabilitation and compensation, including in cases of land subsidence, the situation in captive mines owned by private entities in the area is far worse. They pay little regard to workers’ rights and are far more ruthless in terms of exploiting workers,” Pal told Gaon Connection.
