NEW DELHI, November 16: The Union coal ministry is drawing up plans to tap unclaimed development funds worth Rs 335 crore within its control. This would help in tackling the land subsidence at Raniganj and the unsuppressible underground inferno at the Jharia coalfields, now raging for close to a century.

The Jharia coalfield fire, first detected in 1916, has destroyed coal worth nearly Rs 600 crore in the last 90 years. The long tradition of unscientific mining at close cover, has rendered nearly 38 spots at the Raniganj coalfields unsafe.

Mishaps like the Chauthali Kuli subsidence in November last year, prompted coal minister Kanti Singh to set up a committee to evolve a comprehensive strategy to tackle the Jharia mine fire and land subsidence at Raniganj.

The committee was headed by the then coal secretary N P Bagchi and drew its members from Planning Commission, labour ministry, the director general of mines safety, Coal India Ltd, Eastern Coalfields Ltd, Bharat Coking Coalfields Ltd, the Central Mines Planning and Development Institute and the state governments of West Bengal and Bihar.

The high-profile panel recommended that 300 families residing in subsidence-prone zones at the Raniganj coalfields and in the proximity of the mine fire at the Jharia coalfields be shifted out of the area at once. "The entire population of these danger-prone areas has to be moved out," said coal ministry sources. "We decided to begin with our own (Coal India Limited) workforce, since we do not have much control over the others."

Some houses at the Kumar Bazar and Amar Talkies villages at Raniganj have already been demolished and their inhabitants moved to alternative sites. Coal India Ltd, the holding company for eight public sector coal mining companies, plans to acquire 100 acres of land from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the displaced miners and their families.

Rehabilitating the 300 families at Raniganj and Jharia will together cost Rs 60 crore, which the coal ministry plans to draw out of the coal conservation and development funds. The kitty was set up by the Coal Mines (Conservation and Development) Act in 1974.

The following year the Coal Conservation and Development Advisory Committee was set up, which recommends assistance for mine conservation and safety projects at periodic meetings. The Act imposes a cess on coal companies of Rs 4 per tonne of coal despatched, to build up a kitty for conservation and development of coal mines.

During the 1996-97 fiscal alone, the excise duty collections for the fund amounted to Rs 100 crore. By December 1996, the committee had approved reimbursement of Rs 67 crore of mine development projects from the fund.

Coal ministry sources said the coal conservation and development kitty, still contained Rs 335 crore of `unclaimed' funds, which could be deployed to tackle the Jharia fire and the land subsidence at Raniganj. Some of the funds have already been spent on land-filling techniques like hydropneumatic stowing and fire extinguishing strategies like hydraulic sand stowing.

Efforts to control the smouldering Jharia coalfields have been on since the seventies. When coal mines were nationalised in 1972, 70 active fire spots were detected across a 17 square km area, of which 10 have been extinguished so far.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.