Rourkela: Coal production at Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) collieries has gone for a toss since three days as inhabitants of four villages, displaced by mining activities at Basundhara and Kuluda mines, are not allowing transportation of any goods from the coal-producing company.

More than five hundred residents of mainly four villages - Balinga, Gopalpur, Tunudia and Jhumpuragaon - who have been displaced following mining activities at Basundhara and Kuluda mines under Hemgiri block, have launched the agitation against the MCL.

The agitators want pollution control steps, employment for local residents and adherence to the 2010 judgement of the Supreme Court.

Agitators on Thursday stopped the loading of coal at Sardega railway siding of Basundhara mines and this led to tension there. They were later pacified on the intervention of the local administration.

More than hundred trucks both loaded with coal and ready to load coal are stranded near the two mines as nothing is being allowed in or out.

Chairperson of Hemgiri panchayat samiti Sudharani Roudia told the reporters: "We need proper rehabilitation for the displaced persons, pollution control measures at the excavation site and nearby villages, employment for deserving people and clearance of long-pending dues of some of the displaced persons."

Sarpanch of Gopalpur, one of the worst-affected areas, Khyamasila Majhi said: "They should adhere to the 2010 SC verdict in which the MCL has been directed to conduct a survey at the displaced villages and take necessary steps, besides stress on peripheral activities in the affected areas under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) schemes."