Coal Minister takes night view of Jharia mines fire, assures safe rehabilitation of residents in Dhanbad

Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi took a night view of the Jharia mines fire and assured the residents living in the dangerous zone for providing rehabilitation to a safe place with proper compensation.

The Union Minister, who has been on a two-day visit to the coal belt, on Thursday evening reached one of the most affected Jharia fire zones, the areas of Bharat Coking Coal  Limited (BCCL) Bansjoro open cast project at around 7.15 pm and took project report from officials about the mining of trapped coal in underground mines.

The minister, along with  Coal India Limited (CIL) chairman  PM Prasad, BCCL chairman cum managing director Samiran Dutta, deputy commissioner cum managing director of Jharia  Rehabilitation Development  Authority (JRDA) Sandip Singh, director technical (DT) of BCCL Uday Anant Kauley, director personnel (DP) Murli Krishna  Rammaiya and other officials, became surprised to see people living in such devastating fire areas.

It is the maiden visit of Joshi to the coal belt. The minister also met selected affected residents of the fire zone and assured them to provide safe land with proper compensation.

Later on, while talking with media persons in the late evening, the coal minister said land owners living in the fire zone would be given proper compensation for their land beside a quarter in ‘Smart City’ so that they could go with satisfaction at the new place. “ They (  residents) are ready to shift provided given proper compensation”, he said.

Dhanbad MP PN Singh was also with the Union Minister at the press meeting.

As per the 2019 survey 1.4 lakh families are living in the danger fire zone of the Jharia coal mines area of which 72,882 are unauthorised families and 32,064 are land owner families.

As per the Jharia Master Plan of the central government, residents of fire zone areas should have been rehabilitated in a safe place by August 2021. But to date, even one-fourth of families have been not rescued.