The one-day strike at Coal India and its subsidiaries, called by the Central Trade Unions, on Friday evoked a “mixed response”, according to trade unions.
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The Trade Unions called for the strike to protest against the Central government’s policies which are “badly” affecting the coal industry.
“The one-day strike at Coal India, its subsidiaries and Singareni Collieries evoked a mixed response. Workers’ participation in the strike at the coal mines of CIL’s coal-producing subsidiaries ranges between 50-75 per cent. At Singareni Collieries’ coal mines, workers participation was around 46 per cent. So, production was definitely hit due to the strike,” All India Coal Workers’ Federation General Secretary DD Ramanandan told businessline.
Industry sources said the immediate hit on production was not known yet.
Notably, in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, Coal India said it was in receipt of strike notice regarding one day all India strike in entire CIL and its subsidiaries on February 16 from Central Trade Unions-HMS, AITUC, INMF (INTUC) and CITU.
“We called for the strike to protest against the Central government’s policies which are badly affecting the coal industry. We are against the MDO (Mine Developer and Operator) mode of production, and the current revenue sharing framework. We are also opposing the government’s contract appointment policy,” Ramanandan said.
CIL is the largest coal producer in the world. Currently, India is the second largest producer of coal in the world producing about 893.08 million tonnes of coal in 2022-23.
The coal sector in India is dominated by state producers, including Coal India and Singareni Collieries. CIL, with its seven wholly-owned coal producing subsidiaries and one mine planning and consultancy company, produced about 703.20 mt during the financial year 2022-23 which was about 79 per cent of the total coal produced in the country.
For the current financial year, CIL has a production target of 780 million tonnes. On Friday, the company scrip ended the day at ₹479.85 apiece on BSE, up 0.66 per cent from the previous close.