SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 12: The Rashtriya Khan Mazdoor Federation (RKMF) has said that over 6 lakhs miners, including contractual workers, would go on one day strike if Coal India Limited (CIL) management failed to give a positive response to their long-pending demands.
RKMF President Jayamangal Singh alias Anup Singh (MLA) and Vice-President AK Jha after the meeting said that it has been unanimously decided to hand over a charter of demands to the CIL chairman for implementation. If he failed to show a positive response, around 6 lakhs regular and contractual miners would go on a one-day strike.
Among the 5.85 lakh miners of CIL, 40,000 regular and 1.20 lakh contractual are working in Jharkhand based Central Coalfield Limited (CCL), 29,000 regular and 1.25 lakh contractual in BCCL and 7,500 regular and 15,000 contractual are working in mines of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL).
“CIL has deducted facilities of miners and has denied jobs to youths who are entitled to get the opportunity under female VRS. The federation has also demanded regularization of jobs to contractual miners who have worked 190 days in underground mines and 240 days on the surface. Also, the appointment of Overman and Mining Sardar on vacant posts in coal companies is one of the demands,” said Anup Singh.
Meanwhile, Anup Singh, also the Congress MLA of Bermo, claimed that the dispute in the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) would be resolved soon. “National Congress President Sonia Gandhi has taken the INTUC dispute in Jharkhand seriously and has assured to sort out the matter soon after getting the report of Digvijay Singh (Madhya Pradesh) and Mallikarjun Kharge (Karnataka).
The INTUC affiliated to the Congress has been divided into two groups in Jharkhand as well as the national level. G Sanjeva Reddy is leading one faction while Chandrashekhar Dubey alias Dadai Dubey of Jharkhand is leading another faction.
The matter has also reached the court. Rattled by the factional feud in INTUC, which has also impacted Congress organization, Sonia Gandhi had last year set up a two members committee of Digvijay Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge to present a report over the dispute.
