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Production at the 70-million- tonne per annum Talcher coalfields of the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), Odisha came to a halt this morning, courtesy a turf war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP and the State Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD.
MCL contributes nearly one-fourth of Coal India’s annual production, with Talcher generating two-thirds of MCL’s output.
The stoppage comes at a time when the mine was producing nearly 3 lakh tonnes a day to help CIL to produce approximately 493 million tonnes this fiscal.
Aahar canteens The trouble began on March 26 when MCL backed out from its promised participation in State-run Aahar Yojna.
Similar to ‘Amma canteens’ in Jayalalithaa’s Tamil Nadu, Patnaik wants municipal bodies to offer meals to urban poor at ₹5 through Aahar canteens from April 1.
MCL was requested to contribute ₹2.3 crore from its huge CSR (corporate social responsibility) budget for running such canteens in Sambalpur in 2015-16.
Similar requests were made to all other major State-owned companies having operations in the State.
Battleground MCL The opposition, led by the BJP (which got only one seat riding on Modi wave in 2014), took it as a attempt by BJD to woo urban voters before the municipal elections in June July this year.
Pressure was mounted on central public sector undertakings to not participate in the Aahar scheme, citing lack of clarity and chances of fund diversion.
MCL was caught in the middle of the controversy. Sources say the company despite making an early promise to participate in the scheme, rejected the State proposal on March 26, under pressure from the BJP.
In response, the BJD launched massive campaign against the miner from Saturday (March 28).
Mining in BJD-controlled Talcher came to a total halt from 5-30 AM this morning. Informed sources said they expected the BJD to step up its protest against the miner.
Interestingly, soon after the BJD-BJP battle broke out, the Naveen Patnaik government pressed the ‘pause’ button on an infrastructure joint venture proposal between MCL, Indian Railways and the Odisha government.
The memorandum of understanding was scheduled to be signed during the Prime Minister’s visit to Rourkela, on April 1.
However, this is likely to be postponed.
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