Odisha: Villagers protest Jamkani coal mining operations, demand compensation

The villagers were demanding compensation under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013

Odisha’s Sundargarh district on Saturday witnessed a skirmish between villagers and the authorities after hundreds clashed with police demanding additional compensation for their land acquisition for coal mining. They also demanded mining by Vedanta at a coal block allocated to the company be stopped.

Jamkhani coal block is in proximity to the company’s Jharsuguda aluminium smelter plant and is one of the most attractive coal blocks (HT Photo)

Two women of Jamkani village, Jema Gond and Seema Gond, on whose land the bhumi pujan ceremony was being held, barged in with hundreds of displaced villagers but were stopped by 16 platoons of police who resorted to mild lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.

“We not only have lost agricultural income following the acquisition of our lands but have failed to find an alternate source of employment due to delays in mining operations. As the land was acquired for mining projects which did not start, the government washed off its hands and did not undertake any local development. We should be compensated under the new land acquisition law,” said Jema Gond.

Though Vedanta has offered additional ex-gratia and compensation of ₹6 lakh per acre, the villagers have refused to budge saying the land needs to be acquired afresh.

Over 800 hectares of land in Jamkani, Mendra, Girisuan and Jharpalam villages in the Hemgir block of Sundargarh district were initially acquired for the Jamkani coal block between 2006 and 2011 for Bhusan Power and Steel Ltd through state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. After Bhushan pulled out, it was allotted to Vedanta which then entered into a Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement with the Ministry of Coal in February 2020.

Jamkhani coal block is in proximity to the company’s Jharsuguda aluminium smelter plant and is one of the most attractive coal blocks for the plant in terms of location, annual capacity, reserves and readiness to produce.

Earlier, a woman and 14 others from Jamkani village had challenged the competency of the state government to acquire land for the coal block through IDCO by ignoring the Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act, 1957. The petitioners claimed that in coal-bearing areas, the central government or its authorised agencies are competent for acquiring land.

Sundargarh additional district magistrate (Revenue) Abhimanyu Behera, however, said the land acquisition was completed in 2011 and all the affected families have received compensation. “The demand for fresh land acquisition has no validity. IDCO has transferred the land to Vedanta and it can start mining,” Behera said.