While the government of West Bengal is blaming the shortage of coal for the continuing power crisis in the state, rampant loot of coal in broad daylight from the coal siding is forcing the coal producing company to halt production and supply to the power stations.
The supply of coal to the power generating stations of West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited (WBPDCL) from Bengal Emta's captive coalmines at Barjora, under Khairashol police station in Birbhum had to be suspended because of this. Even after a meeting at Writers' Building presided by the home secretary yesterday where he asked the administration to put a stop to this loot and lawlessness in the coalfield area, the situation did not improve.
Reports reached Kolkata that as the rakes were being loaded with coal at the siding at Hazratpur railway station near Khairashol, over 1,200 people started looting coals. Though apprehending disturbances, policemen led by a DSP and four other officers were posted beforehand they did nothing to stop them. The district magistrate Soumitra Mohan did not want to comment on this.
But Debashis Sen, MD, WBPDCL was said that after a break of some days Bengal Emta had resumed its supply of coal to PDCL on March 22. "Already, we have received 3-4 rakes, and we hope the problem will be overcome with the cooperation of all," he said.
Bengal Emta has captive coal blocks in Burdwan and Birbhum districts from where it supplies high grade (Grade B) coal to WBPDCL and DPL's power plants. But because of the rampant loot of coal they had to often reduce their production of coal at their Birbhum Block.
According to one official of Bengal Emta, they are supposed to supply one rake from Birbhum and another two from Burwan.
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One rake (58 to 59 wagons per rake) means 37,000 metric tonnes of coal.
However, because of the systematic looting of coal from their siding, they had to scale down their generation substantially and accordingly, the power stations are getting less amount of coal. In his budget speech on March 22, the state finance minister Asim Dasgupta said, "Because of the problem of availability of standard quality coal, balance between demand and supply has been disrupted."
However, since the non-availability of coal for power stations has much to do with the law and order situation in the state, home secretary Ardhendu Sen had to convene a meeting where representative of Bengal Emta, power generation company WBPDCL, IG (Law & Order) and district officials were present.
But today's incident showed that the writ of the administration is not working at the grass root level.
A official of the district administration, who did not want to be identified, observed that, "this is not a case of simple law and order where a group of criminals are involved in the lootings. It is a case where a large section of people of the local society is participating in the loot with direct blessings from the political establishment. That's why it is difficult to prevent”.
Also, after the steep rise of cooking gas, a large section of rural people are turning back to coal for their cooking purposes.
Also, the mushroom growth of brickfields in neighboring Murshidabad district has created a demand for the coal obtained in this process. This is also a reason why the political establishment is turning a blind eye to this growing trend of mass lootings.