SUBHASH MISHRA
Ranchi, Feb 27: Rashtriya Colliery Mazdoor Union (RCMU), a major constituent of INTUC, has urged the coal minister to lift the ban on jobs of medically unfit miners in Coal India Limited (CIL) and its subsidiaries.
RCMS general secretary AK Jha today shot off a letter to Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi saying that thousands of family members of medically unfit miners of CIL and its subsidiaries company, Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Central Coalfield Limited and Eastern Coalfield Limited and others, are facing sheer hardship due to this ban. “So, lift it immediately in the interest of miners and industrial relations,” he added.
Jha pointed out that the decision to give jobs to the kin of medically unfit miners was made in 1979 after deliberation at JBCCI meetings. Still, the Ministry of Coal suddenly stopped this recruitment in 2017 without obtaining consent from NCWA-10.
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“It is surprising that Coal India Limited is the highest revenue donor to the government and gives the highest freight fare to the Indian Railway. In the last 3rd quarter of the financial year, CIL earned a profit of Rs 900 crores. Still, dependents of its miners are gasping for survival due to the inhuman policy of the coal ministry,” said RCMS general secretary, who is also secretary of Jharkhand INTUC.
AK Jha said Rashtriya Khan Mazdoor Federation (RKMF) president Jayamangal Singh alias Anup Singh (MLA) had raised the issue strongly at the National Coal Wage Board-11 meeting. The CIL chairman then assured the representatives of all national trade unions that they would do what was needed. Still, no step has been initiated at the management level to give jobs to keen medical unfit miners.
