Kisan Sabha submitted a memorandum to the chairman of Coal India demanding redressal of the problems of the displaced people, called for Kusmunda mine-office shutdown on 11th and Gevra on 17th*
Gevra (Korba)(thestates.news)| The Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha today submitted a memorandum to the new chairman of Coal India, PM Prasad, demanding redressal of the problems of the land displaced farmers. The Kisan Sabha reiterated its call for closure of the Kusmunda mine-office on August 11 and the Gevra mine-office on August 17.
It is worth mentioning that the Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha and the Bhoo-visthapit Rojgar Ekta Sangh have been agitating for two consecutive years for providing basic facilities including employment, settlement and return of land in SECL’s mega projects Kusmunda, Gevra and Deepka. This was Chairman Prasad’s first visit to the project with the aim of increasing coal production, which was not made public by the SECL management. But as soon as the news of his visit came, under the leadership of Kisan Sabha, a large number of land displaced persons gathered in front of Gevra House and started protesting against the visit. They said that before increasing the coal production, the SECL management should first solve the problems of the land displaced people. In view of the large number of displaced persons, the CISF personnel had closed the main gate of the guest house.
Coal India Chairman PM Prasad and SECL CMD Premsagar Mishra called the delegation of Kisan Sabha for discussion at Gevra House as soon as they came to know about the protest of land displaced people and siege of mine and office several times. The delegation led by District Secretary of Kisan Sabha Prashant Jha included Deepak Sahu, Resham Yadav, Damodar Shyam, Raghu Yadav, Jai Kaushik, Sumendra Singh Thakral, Hori, Shivdayal Kanwar, Basant Chauhan etc. Chairman Prasad seriously listened to the problems of the land oustees and assured them of early redressal.
In its memorandum, the Kisan Sabha has underlined the fact that the farmers who have worked to illuminate the country and the world by giving their land between 1978-2004 and have recognized Korba district as a powerhouse, today the same families are wandering for employment. The Kisan Sabha has demanded that the process of providing employment to all the affected people on every account should be completed soon and the old acquired land should be returned to the original account holders after the mine is closed or becomes unusable. In its memorandum, Kisan Sabha has also demanded to provide basic facilities in resettlement villages and free education to the children of land displaced and free treatment to their families in SECL hospitals.
Kisan Sabha Secretary Prashant Jha has said that the land displaced have no other option but to struggle and they are standing firm for following their call of closure of mines and gherao of offices on August 11 in Kusmunda and August 17 in Gevra.
