TALCHER: The 10-day stalemate over the appointment and rehabilitation package by the Kalamchuin villagers in the periphery of two major open-cast mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited ended today with the villagers calling off the agitation.
Operations in the two mega open-cast coal mines began this evening after a solution was found at a meeting chaired by the district collector today.
It was decided that the villagers would be given appointments under rehabilitation package on conditional basis. One of the conditions being that they would not resort to any mine closure agitation or create law and order problems at the Hingula and Balaram mines, sources said.
Those who get job will have to vacate their homestead land within a time frame after getting residential plot at new resettlement site, the Collector informed the meeting. MCL top officials and local MLA, among others, attended the meeting, sources said.
The villagers had been on an agitation from November 22 over the issue of immediate provision of jobs, a demand which was rejected by MCL authorities.
MCL authorities set a condition that they would first demolish their houses in the village before they are considered for jobs. They pointed out that in the past there were instances when people did not leave their houses despite getting jobs.
To decide on the demands, a highlevel meeting was held under the chairmanship of Energy Secretary Pradip Jena at Bhubaneswar and a follow-up meeting was held here today.
Meanwhile, MCL claimed to have lost about four lakh tonne of coal due to the agitation and State also lost revenue in the form of royalty. Village headman PC Sahu said the agitation had been called off and mines were back to normal.