In the beginning it was a fight between two groups of local villagers on some petty issue. That was on April 7, when police swung into action and arrested some only to be released soon.
Since then, problems began at Talcher area of Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) of Coal India (CIL) that supplies 1.2 lakh tonnes every day (44 million tonnes a year) to power stations in the region and down South.
Having operated at half of the capacity for the last two days, all three large opencast mines (including 25 mtpa Bhubaneswari, the largest in Odisha) in the area came to a grinding halt from Friday morning.
To add to the trouble, the agitators reportedly manhandled a project officer who is also the President of CIL’s officers association in Odisha on Thursday.
The angry officers have approached the company seeking en masse transfer from this ‘disturbed’ zone. The agitators are also not left far behind. They are bringing out new list of demands almost on an hourly basis.
The last of such demand came from a non-coal bearing village, which now wants resettlement and jobs. While the agitation was not linked to any political party, MCL sources blame police inaction behind the rapid deterioration of the situation over last couple of days.