A bandh from tomorrow called by villagers in Angul district of Odisha may hit production from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), a Coal India (CIL) subsidiary.
The development comes at a time when some of the power plants across the country are facing fuel shortages.
"Country may face daily shortage of about one lakh tonne coal from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd following the bandh call from tomorrow given by villagers in Angul district of Odisha, demanding resettlement at coal bearing piece land instead of existing site provided by the state government," an MCL spokesperson said in a statement.
The protest is likely to hamper coal production as well as supply to the power producers within and outside Odisha, many of whom have reached critical level coal stock, the spokesperson said.
"Since many power plants across the country are facing fuel shortage, MCL has appealed to the protesting villagers not to resort to protests, causing obstruction to coal mining operations, and adding to the woes of general people," the spokesperson said.
MCL had earlier terminated services of 126 employees who were provided jobs against their land in Hensmul village near Bhubaneswari Opencast mine in Odisha, after they continued to obstruct mining operations.
"MCL has taken disciplinary action against 126 employees and terminated their service for violating the terms and conditions of the appointment...This step was taken as per the recommendations of the Monitoring-cum-Coordination Committee in Coal Mines chaired by the Chief Secretary, Odisha," a company spokesperson had earlier said.
These employees, who were inducted in the company in lieu of their land were not only "obstructing coal mining operations for their vested interests" but were not ready to vacate the land at villages Hensmul and Jalinda despite the company acquiring it way back back and recruiting them between 1995 and 2005, he had said.
Disciplinary aActions have to be taken against the employees in the circumstances where their actions are against the company as well as the national interest, he had added.
MCL is the youngest but the second highest coal producing subsidiary of CIL and its about 60 per cent production comes from the mines in the Talcher Coalfields, the largest coalfields in India.
Out of these terminated 126 employees, 71 employees had also taken possession of company quarters.
The company said it has provided about 11,292 jobs to the land losers till December 2013.
MCL, which was carved out of Coal India arms SECL and CCL in 1993, has 22,278 people strong workforce as of date.
