ANGUL: Coal supply to 1200 MW National Aluminium Company (Nalco) captive power plant came to a grinding halt on Friday due to blockade staged by land oustees of Badajorada village since morning. Nalco takes three to four rakes of coal from Bharat coal mine of Talcher Coalfield per day to feed its power plant.
The land oustees of Badajorada, on the day, stopped the rail line linking Nalco to Bharatpur mine demanding contractual job in the power plant. Badajorada sarpanch Jiten Behera, who led the agitation, said villagers lost land for Nalco way back in 2007 -08. They were promised jobs at the time of land acquisition. But instead of permanent jobs, they were absorbed in contractual ones. Later, the land losers were out of job after their contract got over. The contracts were not renewed, he added.
“We want contractual jobs for land oustees in NALCO immediately. We had apprised district collector and Nalco authorities about our demands and told them that in case our demands are not met, we will go for rail blockade from Friday. So we will continue the stir till our demands are met,” said Behera.
Nalco sources said, they take around 10,000 tonne of coal through rail from Talcher coalfield which has been blocked by the strike.
Though there is no immediate threat to the functioning of power plant, it will get affected if the strike continues. Executive director Bhimsen Pradhan said he was aware of the demand of villagers. “We have sent officials for talks with the protesters,” he said.