Udaipur (Chhattisgarh) : Residents of six villages located close to the Parsa mines on Wednesday gathered in large numbers at Ambikapur and submitted a memorandum to the District Collector to soon start the Parsa coal project in Udaipur development block of Surguja district, Chhattisgarh.
The locals have also objected to the entry of outsiders in the villages who are misleading the people in the name of a Raipur-based NGO. The people have demanded the district administration to stop their activities.
Collector Sanjeev Kumar Jha has assured the villagers of taking action after getting the issue investigated.
With the opening of Parsa mines, it is not only the local people who will get employment opportunities, the state government will also earn huge revenue and the country will also be benefited.
Around 1,200 to 1,500 people from Parsa and adjoining villages — Ghatbarra, Fattepur, Janardanpur, Salhi — on Wednesday requested the district administration to ban the entry of fake NGOs in their villages.
Shiv Kumar Yadav, deputy sarpanch of Parsa village, said, “We support the Parsa mines project but oppose Alok Shukla, who instigates the locals by bringing outsiders here. We request the Collector to start the Parsa mine. If it is not started, we will go to Raipur and request the government. We need employment here.”
“During the Covid pandemic, it was the mine companies which stood with us and not these outsiders. The villagers have now warned the district administration of a violent agitation if the mines are not started,” he added.
The villagers told the District Collector that they had given their land for the Parsa coal project in 2019 in the hope that they would get good price as well as employment.
But despite giving land, the mines have not yet started and eventually they are not getting employment. For survival, they have to depend on the money received as compensation.
They said that Alok Shukla, the kingpin of the so-called NGO, and his associates are targeting the Parsa mine, as Chhattisgarh is the largest coal producer in the country.
“The villagers living around PEKB mines operating nearby are getting prosperous due to the all-round development of their villages. They are getting quality education, health, livelihood and many other facilities, but we are deprived of all these due to non-commissioning of the Parsa coal block,” said Vedmati Uike from Salhi village.
Three coal blocks of Sarguja — Parsa East Kente Basan (PEKB), Parsa and Kente Extension — were allotted by the Central government several years ago for thermal power projects of Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL).
Currently, mining is going on in PEKB, but the rest of the two blocks are non-functional, and are pending with the Chhattisgarh government for approval.
The coal mines of Chhattisgarh supply coal to many power plants in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, which produce electricity which the governments there can provide to the citizens at cheap rates.
–IANS
Comments are closed.