Hazaribagh MP and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has alleged a massive scam in the loading of coal from mines in Jharkhand, pointing out that in the name of giving relief to evictees who lost their land to Coal India, corrupt officials were connivance with the police to cede local operations to the mafia who fleece buyers.
Sinha’s allegations, made in the Lok Sabha during yesterday’s Zero Hour, were incisive. He even referred to Kaala Pathhar and the role essayed by fellow BJP MP Shatrughan Singh in the film to prove his point.
His statement comes more than a month after he participated in an agitation of evictees demanding a coal dump in Hazaribagh’s Phusri village. Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a subsidiary of Coal India, had filed an FIR against him and others for allegedly locking up their general manager for six hours.
Sinha, who surrendered at Charhi police station on April 12, was let off for want of evidence.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Sinha explained that Coal India promises a job to every family whose land it acquires. The job is only given after mining begins. As this takes very long, often decades, a coal dump yard is created under every general manager where buyers come to procure coal.
Here evictees are organised into gangs of 20 each to load coal onto the trucks of the buyers. This earns them just enough to sustain themselves.
The scam is that the mafia fudges the coal company’s books adding a large number of fictional gangs. The mafia extorts much higher loading charges from the buyers and pocket the surplus money, the MP alleged.
In his speech in Parliament, he said: “Lakhs of rupees exchange hands everyday… Coal India, CCL officials are directly involved. I discovered that every evening the spoils are divided in the GM’s office. The local police, too, are involved in this.”
A CCL source clarified that buyers, who were selected through the e-auction, got delivery orders from the company's Ranchi office and went to collect the coal. “It’s not just us (officials), everyone is involved including politicians,” he said.
Nirsa MLA and mining union leader Arup Chatterjee explained that while the prescribed rate for loading 10 tonnes is Rs 850, the mafia charged up to Rs 1,500. Both buyer and worker could function only with the mafia’s blessings. “The mafia isn’t just involved. They run the place. The CBI just needs to visit. Nothing is secret,” he added
Sinha also pointed out that whenever there was an upright DC or SP the mafia was curtailed. “But, as this is a central undertaking, I have asked for a CBI probe,” he said.
In his House speech, Sinha appreciated actor Shatrughan Sinha’s role in the 1979 film Kaala Pathhar, based on the 1975 Chasnala disaster in Dhanbad that killed 372 miners.
In the film, Sinha plays Mangal, a miner, who is also a thug. He reforms and joins protagonist Amitabh Bachchan’s character, Vijay, to fight against the mine owner when the floods endanger the lives of others. Also, Sinha’s speech yesterday, comes a month before Manoj Bajpai starrer Gangs of Wasseypur is to hits screens. The film is based on the coal mafia of Dhanbad.
