Talcher legislator Braja Kishore Pradhan has threatened to paralyse Talcher industrial belt including the Railways, Nalco and MCL for neglecting the region despite earning thousands of crore of rupees annually as revenue.
Speaking at a media conference in Talcher on Sunday, Pradhan said during his visit to New Delhi he had apprised the Ministers of Mine, Railways and Coal of their negligence of the Talcher region even though it is among the highest revenue generating regions in the country.
He said he met the Railway Minister CP Joshi and told him that Talcher has been one of the highest income yielding stations for the Railways in the country. But the area continues to remain neglected in railway connectivity and demanded movement of all long distance trains running on Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur route to pass through Talcher station. Pradhan also demanded that Talcher should be announced a model station with all modern facilities.
During his meeting with Minister of Mines, D Patel, the legislator put forth five demands including jobs to all categories of land oustees, free medical aid and electricity supply to the area.
An eight-point charters of demands was submitted to the Coal Minister Sriprakasah Jaiswal. The demands included formation of separate coal company for Talcher, immediate establishment of medical collage at Talcher, special package for the local people where 70 per cent of MCL coal is produced. Besides, pay hike of miners and extension of other benefits to the contractual workers of MCL, back filling of mines, water supply to all villages in the region, control of pollution and setting up coal tribunal at Talcher were other demands.