Dhanbad, Dec. 3: The Coal Mines Officers’ Association of India (CMOAI) today set December 25 as the deadline for the Coal India Ltd (CIL) management to meet its demands.

The CMOAI has been demanding the merger of CIL subsidiaries and re-organisation on the plea that it would not only make CIL a “great company” like the railways, it would also help in bailing out the loss-making subsidiaries. The CIL management and the union coal ministry, however, have not yet shown a positive response.

CMOAI members have threatened to launch a phase-wise protest, followed by an indefinite strike, if the CIL management continued to turn a deaf ear to them. The decision was formally communicated through a letter to the CIL management by CMOAI president S.N. Katiyar and secretary general Sukhdeo Narain after a meeting at Jagjivan Nagar guest house here this afternoon.

“It is high time the CIL management took note of our longstanding demands. We have already given them enough time. We have been suffering for so long. Now we have made it clear that we will fight till the demands are met with,” Narain told The Telegraph.

The letter to CIL chairman Laxmi Chand said the officers’ body “will have no other alternative but to resort to agitation” if the management failed to concede to the demands by December 25.

“On the expiry of the deadline the CMOAI would hold demonstrations at all the subsidiary headquarters on December 26 which would be followed by another demonstration at the CIL headquarters on January 8. After January 9 the CMOAI will adopt further means of protest to realise their demands,” the letter read.

CMOAI officers feel that by making CIL a unitary company would also help in saving about Rs 600 crore to Rs 700 crore which the CIL pays as tax to the government.

The amalgamation would also enable CIL in getting more loans from different financial bodies and the government. The officers also want the government to allot coal blocks, which it plans to lease out to private parties, to the CIL subsidiaries so that they could bail themselves out from the current financial crisis.

“There is no reason to bring in private players. We are importing 60 to 70 million tonnes of coal annually from countries like Australia and China. But proper management and regulation of resources could help coal companies produce the additional 60 to 70 tonnes here,” a spokesman for the body, A.K. Singh said.

The CMOAI’s 46-point charter of demands include time -bound promotions, revision of allowances, jobs for dependants of seriously-ill employees and safety arrangements for the families of officials working in sensitive areas.