Coal India Ltd said its worker unions have threatened a three-day "work to rule" strike this month demanding the return of coal blocks allocated by the government to private firms and withdrawal of plans to sell a stake in the company.The "work-to-rule" strike would mean a limited number of miners will attend work with minimum disruption to daily activities. However, it would still aggravate an already severe shortage of the fuel in the country.More than half of India's thermal power plants, which source most of their coal from state behemoth Coal India, have stocks enough to last for only less than a week.Coal India said in a statement that five unions representing more than 350,000 workers of the world's largest coal producer will resort to "work to rule" from Sept. 18.They want the government to allocate to Coal India the 218 coal blocks awarded mostly to private firms over the past two decades and ruled illegal by the Supreme Court last month.The top court is expected to decide on the fate of the blocks in a hearing on Tuesday.The coal workers have also asked the new government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw its planned sale of a 10 per cent stake in Coal India and stop restructuring the company without consulting with the unions.Last year the unions successfully blocked the previous government's move to sell a stake in the company. Workers fear divestment or any restructuring of the company would eventually lead to jobs cuts.They have also opposed investments by Coal India in mines abroad and urged instead to use the money to start coal projects in India which may also generate employment within the country."Efforts are being made to reconcile the same," Coal India said. The coal ministry could not be reached for a comment.(Reuters)
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The Punjab and Haryana High Court today (3 September) set aside Haryana government's decision to allot 350 acres of land at Wazirabad in Gurgaon to real estate developer DLF in 2010. A division bench of the court, comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Amol Rattan Singh, directed Haryana government to conduct an auction of the land in question by inviting international bids within a month. However, DLF would be able to participate in the auction process. The decision came on a bunch of petitions filed by farmers challenging the acquisition and transfer of the land to DLF, citing that it was a village common land, said their counsel Inderpal Goyat. However, the counsel said the bench upheld the acquisition of the land by state-owned authorities but set aside the land transfer to DLF. DLF had proposed to come up with golf villas at the site. The court had in 2012 restrained DLF developers from carrying out any construction and also from creating any third party rights. In August, 2009, DLF had bagged a 350-acre plot for Rs 1,750 crore for developing a recreation and leisure project. The letter of acceptance was issued to DLF which was found the sucessful bidder by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HSIIDC). Meanwhile, DLF said in a statement that it won the land through an international competitive bid conducted twice by the government of Haryana in 2009-10. "As a copy of the order is awaited, we wish to clarify that it will have no bearing on any of our completed or on- going projects. This land was to be developed in the future. After reading the order and taking legal advice, we will take appropriate steps", it said. (PTI)
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