Five-day coal strike begins, hits operations in Odisha

The operations of state-run miner Coal India (CIL) in Odisha were hit on Tuesday as its major workers' unions joined a five-day nationwide strike against the government's plans to allow private players in the sector, an official said.

"There was no production and dispatch of coal from any of the two fields run by Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL), a CIL subsidiary. Workers did not join the first shift at 6:00 am", MCL public relations officer Dikken Mehera told IANS.

MCL, with its headquarters in the town of Burla in Sambalpur district, about 340 km from Bhubaneshwar, operates 15 open cast and six underground mines in the state.

Trade unions on Tuesday began a five-day coal industry strike, terming it as the biggest industrial action for any sector since 1977.

Nationwide, the strike can affect coal production of up to 1.5 million tonnes a day and may also hit supplies to power plants, which are already grappling with fuel shortages.

The five major trade unions backing the strike - Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Confederation of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Hind Mazdoor Sangh - represent almost 90 per cent of CIL's half-a-million workforce.

While All India Coal Workers Federation leader Jibon Roy said in a statement that about seven lakh workers are joining the strike, the government also called a meeting on Tuesday with representatives of the five major trade unions to sort out the issue.

"We are hopeful the situation would be resolved in an amicable manner. The precise impact of the strike would be known later and it would be premature to predict (the impact) at this juncture," state-run Coal India's newly appointed chairman Sutirtha Bhattacharya told PTI.

"It is true that production picks up tempo in the last quarter, as the closure of fiscal draws near. It is unfortunate that the unions have called the strike. We have appealed to them to withdraw the strike in national interest and even now our efforts are on to persuade them to refrain from going into strike," Bhattacharya said.

Earlier, the trade unions have twice boycotted meetings called by the government.