SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 15: The surface fire area has been reduced to 1.79 square kilometres from 9.8 square kilometers in 105 years old Jharia mines fire.
Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) has claimed this in its power presentation before the high power committee over the present status of fire and subsidence in Jharia Coalfield. However, the company management said that it has no report of the present status of the underground mines fire area.
Fire in Jharia Coalfield was first spotted in 1916 in Bhowra colliery. At the time of coal mines’ nationalization in 1973 the fire had spread in 17.32 square kilometres in 70 mines of Jharia. As per the latest survey report now 595 spots are fire-affected in Jharia.
For assessment of fire and subsidence status in Jharia coalfield, the ministry of coal has set up a nine members high power committee under coal secretary Anil Kumar Jain. Project consultant of the coal ministry Anandji Prasad ( as secretary); Krishna S Vats of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Sukhdev Singh, Chief Secretary Jharkhand; Hukum Singh Meena, additional secretary, Department of Land Resources Ministry (DLRM); Pramod Agrawal, chairman, Coal India Limited (CIL); PM Prasad, chairman cum managing director of BCCL; Shekhar Sharan retired CMD of Coal Mines Planning and Designing Institute Limited (CMPDIL) are members of the committee.
A senior official of BCCL on Wednesday said that the committee has been directed to submit the fire status report and suggestion on the Jharia Master Plan over rehabilitation of residents living in dangerous fire zones of Jharia in two months.
The Ministry of Coal has set up a high-level committee as the twelve years tenure of the Jharia Master Plan set up in 2009 for rehabilitation of residents living in dangerous fire areas expired on August 11, 2021. The high power committee would also suggest rehabilitation of residents in minimum time frames at safe places. One of the members of the committee said that on a priority basis families living in the most dangerous places of fire/subsidence would be shifted.
As per official sources in 2019 survey over 1.4 lakh families claimed to be residents of the fire zone of which 32,046 are Raiyats ( land owners) and 72,882 are unauthorised inhabitants.
