TALCHER: Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal will visit Talcher on Friday in the wake of the acute shortage of coal leading to power crisis in the country. He will visit the Talcher Coalfield, one of the four richest coalfields in the country. The coalfield accounts to more than 60 per cent coal production of MCL, the flagship company of CIL, Talcher, and is feeding power stations in seven states, including Odisha.New Coal India Chairman Narasingh Rao will accompany the Minister. Sources said Jaiswal would reach Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening and fly down to Talcher next morning. He will visit Bhubaneswari open cast mine, a completely outsourced mine by Aditya Birla group and hold talks with officials of MCL and trade union leaders, according to MCL official source. Jaiswal will also visit the MCL Central Hospital which is ailing on various fronts.There has been a steady decline in the coal production in the last two years in Talcher much to the disappointment of MCL and CIL authorities due to various reasons. A series of visits by CIL higher-ups and even the Union Minister of State for Coal to find a solution to the problem, have yielded no result.One of the primary reasons behind this is lack of rehabilitation of villagers facing displacement due to coal mining activities. Due to this, there have been frequent bandhs in all the nine open cast mines at Talcher affecting production.
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