Coal minister discusses Jharia Master Plan with Parliamentary panel

On Wednesday, Minister of Coal Pralhad Joshi chaired a meeting with the ministry's Parliamentary Consultative Committee to chalk out a roadmap for the Jharia Master Plan.

Members of Parliament took part in the consultative committee meeting. During the presentation, it was notified that due to unscientific mining in the pre-nationalisation period, mining areas in the Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand faced issues of fire and subsidence. These areas come in the leasehold regions of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), a Coal India arm.

As a result of WP(C) No 381/97 filed by late Haradhan Roy, Ex-MP in 1997 in the Supreme Court of India, a master plan for managing fire, subsidence and rehabilitation in Jharia was passed on August 12, 2009, by the Government of India with the implementation term of 10 years and the pre-implementation period of two years.

In a statement, the Coal Ministry said that the implementation term was completed in August 2021. As a result of fire control steps taken by BCCL, the fire area is continuously declining.

Presently, according to the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) surveys in 2021, fire sites have been decreased to 18 sites comprising 1.8 sq km from the initial 70 sites incorporating an area of 17.32 sq km.

Presently, 15 sites are economically viable, wherein work associated with the digging of fire has been granted. At two sites, BCCL's board has suggested the viability gap funding of Rs 763 crore from the revised master plan. At four sites, blanketing will be done to include the fire sites to extinguish the fire.

Regarding rehabilitation, there are 595 sites wherein BCCL is accountable for taking action to move its staff from BCCL homes. BCCL has begun the construction of 15,852 houses, and presently, around 3,852 families are to be moved to the new homes. BCCL has offered 8,000 homes to be used by the Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) for non-BCCL families.

In the case of rehabilitation of non-BCCL families, there has been a substantial rise in the number of encroachers as of 2019 against the cut-off date provision of 2004. The state government is accountable for shifting legal and non-legal title holders.

JRDA under the state government has undertaken the development of 18,352 houses, out of which 6,352 are achieved, and the rest will be made by August 2022. JRDA has made a revised rehabilitation plan, which the state government is examining.

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