Talcher: Exploration and transportation from 10 mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) were disrupted Tuesday after 300 agitators were detained for offering resistance to an eviction drive at Bhalugadia to facilitate expansion of Hingula mines.
The MCL authorities, backed by police, were evicting agitators who were opposed to the expansion. The agitators were emboldened after Talcher MLA Braja Kishore Pradhan (BJD) reached the spot and offered his moral support to the stir.
Sensing trouble, the police apprehended over 300 villagers when Pradhan courted arrest along with others. The villagers were detained at Hingula coalmines project office. Later, the MCL authorities resumed the evictions.
Soon after Pradhan’s arrest, several villagers engaged in the 10 MCL coalmines reached the spot leading to disruption of coal production.
Consequently, work in the mines at Hingula, Balaram, Jagannath, Lingaraj, Bhubaneswari, Bharatpur, Ananta and Kaniha were affected causing disruption of transportation to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) and other units outside Odisha.
The incident occurred after MCL authorities reached Bhalugadia to carry out evictions to pave way for Hingula coalmines expansion. The drive was being supervised by Angul SP Jagmohan Meena in the presence of Talcher Sub-Collector Paresh Chandra Nayak, SDPO Hemant Kumar Panda, a magistrate, several police IICs and 12 platoons of force.
Earlier, the authorities urged the villagers to vacate their land to which the latter offered resistance. The authorities, however, went ahead with bulldozing the housing structures.
On being informed, Talcher MLA Pradhan reached the spot and urged the authorities to halt the evictions until alternative rehab arrangements are made. Police, however, refused to listen and detained the villagers opposed to evictions.
Meanwhile, angered by evictions, a few locals ransacked the Dera guest house and staged an impromptu sit-in at Handidhuan Square and Colliery police station.
MLA Pradhan condemned the evictions without prior information to the land losers.
Superintendent of Police Jagmohan Meena clarified that no one was arrested or detained so far.
Sub-Collector Nayak denied that MLA Pradhan was arrested, instead “it was the legislator who courted arrest”.
Hingula coalmines project officer Ajay Singh said 41 families residing in over seven hectares near the mines had been evicted.