Citu stops work at coal-bed methane gas project
Kolkata   17-Nov-2010

CPM’s labour wing Citu has stopped production at India’s first coal-bed methane (CBM) gas project at Asansol, leading to disruption of supply to 30 industries including ISP, Kulti, DSP of Sail and CNG autorickshaws since the last two days.

The incident has occurred at a time when commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen was planning to convert all vehicles in the Asansol-Durgapur region to CNG mode and start a city gas service.

On Tuesday, about 125 CNG autorickshaw owners blocked the National Highway-2 for about an hour in protest against the disruption in supply of CNG at IOCL’s Jubilee Petrol Pump. Later, Trinamool Congress leader Maloy Ghatak took them to Asansol SDO Sandip Dutta’s office after police intervention.

The autorickshaw owners have threatened to launch a bigger agitation if the problem is not solved after Wednesday. “Most of these youths have purchased the vehicles on bank loans; now, if supply is stopped, where they will go?” Ghatak said.

Talking to TOI, Burdwan DM Onkar Singh Meena said that there is a workers’ problem at Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited (GEECL), and that they have been instructed to arrange a bilateral meeting to discuss labour welfare and management issues.

Somenath Chakraborty, DGM (geology) of GEECL, a unit of the Y K Modi group, India’s pilot project in CBM gas production in Asansol, said that the daily loss is estimated at about about 1.25 crore. “They are not allowing our staff to enter the production unit premises and Asansol office. Every day, we produce one lakh cubic metre of CBM. Not only is gas production wasted, but at the same time, the crucial pipeline maintenance is not taking place, which can lead to a major disaster,” he added.

CPM zonal secretary Partha Mukherjee alleged that the management was not keen about the interest of the company’s workers. “We had demanded 12 days’ holiday per year, night service allowance and PF, among others, for workers. But despite meetings with the management on October 30, they did not heed our request and we were forced to stop work,” he said.