Irate residents protest in front of Tasra colliery in Dhanbad on Wednesday. Picture by Gautam Dey

Sindri, March 2: Angry over Steel Authority of India Limited’s unkept rehabilitation promise, more than 200 displaced villagers of Tasra and Rorabandh today took to the streets and brought production at the Tasra colliery to a halt.

The protesters gathered at the Arya Samaj Mandir, 30km from the district headquarters on the Dhanbad-Sindri road, around 11am and marched to the colliery under the banner of Tasra-Rorabandh Visthapit Sangharsh Samiti. They later stalled production at Tasra.

The agitators, led by president of the samiti Babu Lal Agarwal, shouted slogans against management officials and demanded immediate steps towards settling their claims in lieu of land lost for the construction of the new colliery.

Inundated, the Tasra pit was lying idle for more than two decades after which the project was handed over by Bharat Coking Coal Limited to Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in 2002.

SAIL breathed life into the project by inviting tenders for mine development, setting up of a washery and for rehabilitating and resettling the people living there on November 19, 2010. The company had then promised compensation and jobs for all who were to be affected. However, the agitators alleged that the officials went back on their promise and compensation was provided only to some people.

Though local leaders, including ward councillors Sita Devi and Ashok Agarwal supported the agitators, there was dissent among a section of protesters who believed that stopping work at the Tasra colliery would only deprive the workers of their wages.

Former Union minister of state for coal Rita Verma later arrived in Sindri and held talks with management representatives and protesters.

The talks, however, failed to break the deadlock and production at the colliery remained suspended till the time of filing of this report.