Operations at the Kolaghat Thermal Power Station (KTPS) of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL) were partially affected on Thursday after protesters, demanding jobs for land-losers of the project that was initiated in the ’80s, prevented movement in and out of the facility early in the day.
WBDPCL officials said that local land-losers and unemployed youth affiliated to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) gathered before the facility at day-break and subsequently, either locked or blockaded all gates of the power plant.
Incidentally, the protest by these TMC supporters comes a day after their party, led by Union Railway minister Mamata Banerjee, won decisively in municipal hustings across the state.
“They (protesters) were demanding that all the land-losers of the project be given jobs, and later held a meeting with the plant management. But they eventually walked out saying that the demonstration will continue and the management should find a solution to the matter,” the official said.
The first unit of the Kolaghat power station, which has the highest capacity among the state-sector utilities in West Bengal, was synchronised in 1984 and thereafter, five more units were added, brining the total installed capacity of the plant to 1260 MW.
Currently, while the power station has an employee strength of 1650 workers, officials said that the list of land-losers with the firm stated about 2500 individuals.
“There are norms for the recruitment, while most of these people on the (land-losers) list are unskilled. Whenever we have recruited for Class IV workers, many of them have been included. But it is unrealistic to accommodate all these people at one go,” an official explained.
Although production at the power station was not affected by the demonstration, it hampered movement of rakes carrying coal, which are crucial for operations. Three coal-laden rakes were blocked at Mecheda, at the vicinity of Kolaghat, while two empty rakes were stranded inside the plant compound.
“There was also pressure from the Railways as they have to adhere to their timing for rake movement,” the official added.
