Work suspension notice served at Eastern Coalfield Ltd. mine

The public sector Eastern Coalfields Ltd has issued a notice for suspending work at its J.K. Nagar plant near Ranigunj in the State’s Bardhaman district. The decision follows an assault on a manager of the mine by an employee on Wednesday.

Confirming the development a senior official told The Hindu that the company issued a notice on Tuesday saying that it will be shutting down operations at this mine if no action is initiated by the State within four days of serving the notice.

“One of our assistant managers was assaulted by an employee who is also the secretary of the local trade union which owes allegiance to the trade union arm of the party governing the State. He did this when the manager refused to let him sign the register after he reported late for duty. He has been suspended from the company and has also been named in the FIR. We would now like to see some action by the police,” the official said.

ECL is the single largest employer in West Bengal with about 70,000 people. The mine involved has on its rolls some 1200 employees who raise 400 tons of coal daily. ECL’s reserves and its licence area is spread over West Bengal and Jharkhand. It produces some of the best quality coal.

It was learnt that such precipitate action at a public sector mine, which feeds power plants is unusual but not unprecedented. Around 18 months ago at another ECL mine, the services of seven employees were terminated after a similar incident of assault.

For West Bengal, however, the ECL incident comes on the back of a spate of such work stoppages at some of the heritage units in the State.