National conference on environment Environmentalists conference at Calcutta Revival of ECL Centre speaks in two voices

by Staff Correspondent

To wriggle out of an embarrassing situation the BJP-led government at the Centre and its ministers have been increasingly exhibiting a distressing propensity to speak in double voice on the same issue and almost simultaneously too. The classic example of this doublespeak is the threat held out for closure of 64 coal mines of Eastern Coalfields Limited by the Union Coal Minister Mr. Dilip Ray on Wednesday (February 10), Mr. Ray’s letter addressed to the West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu threatening to send the case of the ECL Mines to the Board of Industrial Finance and Reconstruction (BIFR) was received by Basu on Wednesday. Sending the case to BIFR means there will be no proposal at all to revive the mines but if closed down, 72,000 workers will be thrown out of employment. Curiously enough, on the same day, the BJP Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mr. Pramod Mahajan at the Trinamul rally in Calcutta in his distribution of largesse to Trinamul leader Ms. Mamata Banerjee, announced that not a single worker of the concerned mines would be retrenched. But, Mr. Ray’s letter clearly indicated that the workers would be required to accept Coal India’s revival which is an euphemism for voluntary retirement from services.

But almost simultaneously the Centre took an ambiguous stand on the issue. First, the Coal Minister coming down to Calcutta informed Chief Minister Jyoti Basu that the Centre did not want to close down even a single mine under the ECL. Only a few days thereafter, the Union Coal Secretary in a letter to the Chief Secretary of the West Bengal Government Mr. Manish Gupta said that the committee formed by the State Government had no authority to discuss the issue of revival of the ECL mines, rather it should concentrate on devising methods for closing down these mines in a phased manner. The State Government, however, does not attach any importance to the Coal Secretary's letter. The statements of the two Ministers almost on the same day on a same issue will best exemplify that the Union Government has failed to take a firm stand on the issue. The Coal Mines Minister, Mr. Dilip Ray's letter received on February 10 clearly indicated its move to close town the 64 ECL Mines and on the same afternoon, the Information and Broadcasting Minister announced at the maidan rally that mines would not be allowed to be closed forcing the 72,000 workers to go out of employment. The State's Chief Secretary Mr. Manish Gupta heads the committee set up by the Sate Government. The committee met in Calcutta on February 11. The representatives of the ECL management and of the trade unions attended it. Though no formula acceptable to both the management and the trade unions evolved it was decided that the committee would meet again in the first week of March when the trade unions will submit jointly a set of proposal before the committee to get over the impasse. The meetings called by Mr. Gupta was also attended by the Union Coal Secretary, Chairman, CIL, Chairman-cum-MD, Eastern Coalfields Limited.