Coal scam taint on whistleblower

Chandrapur: Hansraj Ahir, the Union minister of state for fertilisers and chemicals, who is often credited with bringing the coal scam to public notice, facilitated a dodgy deal involving a coal mine, according to documents and testimonies available with the Deccan Chronicle. The deal relates to four captive coal blocks located at Baranj in Bhadrawati tehsil of the Chandrapur district in Maharashtra. These were allotted to the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd in 2003 during the Vajpayee government.

In its allocation order, the coal ministry said that KPCL was being given these blocks for the Bellary Thermal Power Station, and was prohibited from selling the coal in the open market. However, one year before the allocation, KPCL, certain of bagging it, had signed an agreement with Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency of West Bengal for the excavation of coal from Baranj and its supply to BPTS. In 2007, KPCL and EMTA  signed an agreement and formed a joint venture company called Karnataka EMTA Coal Mine Ltd (KECML).

With this agreement, the coal block beneficiary transferred all rights of land acquisition and responsibilities of rehabilitation packages to the project affected people to KECML. This is when Mr Ahir and current Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari entered the picture. Vitthal Punwatkar, who was affected by the project and is a former deputy sarpanch of Baranj village, said at a meeting in 2007 Mr Gadkari, Mr Ahir bullied the villagers into agreeing to part with their land at Rs 75,000 per acre.

Eventually, most of the 1,269 project affected people accepted a substantially lower offer as Mr Ahir had promised them that they would get back 50 per cent of the land after seven years. He had also assured them that local youths would be trained for jobs in the power sector, for which an Industrial Training Institute with an investment of Rs 50 lakh would be set up in the area.

“These assurances have proved to be false and we finally came to the conclusion that Mr Ahir has betrayed the villagers,” said Mr Punwatkar. KPCL shut down the mine on April 1 this year as a result of the Supreme Court order of cancellation of coal block allocation while Mr Ahir denies all allegations. “In fact, I am with the villagers and will not allow KPCL to start the coal mines till villagers and employers get their rights,” he said.