Times of India reported that over 400 small and medium scale enterprises in the Jharkhand state are facing acute coal crisis because of alleged apathy of the Central Coalfields Limited and the government owned Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation.

Sources in the Jharkhand Small Industries' Association alleged that almost all the companies were facing acute shortage of coal supply and even if they managed to get some, it was of inferior quality. At times, the companies are also asked to lift allotted quantity of coal within two days which is not possible for any SME.

JSIA president Mr Arun Kumar Khemka said most of the companies which had signed fuel supply agreement with the JSMDC and the CCL were facing tough time.

He said “The supply of coal is very erratic and it creates a lot of problem for the companies. Our members also suffer huge loss because the problem.”

He also alleged that the state government is not helping the SMEs even after repeated request by the association. He said “In the past one year, we have met the state industry and mining secretaries more than 10 times and apprised them of the situation. The secretaries even assured us of every help but so far nothing has happened. A couple of days back, we even tried to meet CCL chairman cum managing director Gopal Singh at his office. We waited there for more than one and a half hours but he did not meet us.”

A senior officer in CCL said the problem was not only with the JSMDC or the CCL. He said “The SMEs are also at fault as they don't issue pollution under check certificate or fitness certificate that is mandatory for us to supply coal on time.”

Source - Times of India

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