Villagers protesting against a coal mining project in the Tamnar area of Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district clashed with the police on Saturday, said officials, with reports streaming in of vehicles getting torched and properties vandalised.
The mob also stormed into the coal handling plant of Jindal Power Limited, and torched a conveyor belt, two tractors and other vehicles, besides vandalising the office premises on Saturday, the officials informed.
Several policemen were injured as a result of stone-pelting, besides damage reported to government vehicles including a police bus, a jeep and an ambulance, they added.
A statement issued by the district administration said people from 14 affected villages under the (Gare Pelma) Sector-I coal block in the Tamnar area have been staging a sit-in protest at CHP chowk in Libra village since December 12 against a public hearing held for the project on December 8 at Dhaurabhatha.
Villagers say they have been demanding the cancellation of the proposed mining project and claimed the public hearing held for its clearance was against prescribed norms.
“On Saturday morning, around 300 protesters gathered at the site, and some of them allegedly blocked the road, disrupting traffic. Senior revenue and police officials intervened around 10 am and persuaded the protesters to return to their tents at the designated protest site,” the statement said.
“However, the crowd continued to swell as people from nearby villages joined, taking the strength to around 1,000. Despite repeated appeals through loudspeakers by revenue and police officials to maintain peace, the crowd allegedly turned violent around 2.30 pm, broke police barricades and attacked personnel with stones and sticks,” it further added, and mentioned that Sub-Divisional Officer of Police, Anil Vishwakarma, Tamnar police station in-charge Kamla Pusam, and a constable sustained serious injuries in the attack, while several other policemen, including women personnel, were also hurt.
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“The mob then allegedly set ablaze a police bus, a jeep and an ambulance, besides damaging several other government vehicles. The protesters then reportedly moved towards the Jindal company’s coal handling plant (CHP), forced their way inside and torched a conveyor belt, two tractors and other vehicles, besides vandalising the office premises,” the release said.
However, the villagers alleged that the situation turned tense after police attempted to remove protesters from the demonstration site on Saturday morning.
One of the agitators, Rajesh Singh Markam of Kasdol village in the Tamnar area, on Saturday submitted a complaint to Raigarh SP claiming he has been facing threats from the local SHO.
Collector, Mayank Chaturvedi, blamed the violence on some “anti-social elements”, saying the villagers had been sitting peacefully at the protest site for the past 15 days and the administration had been ensuring necessary facilities.
“On Saturday at around 2 to 2.30 pm, some anti-social elements provoked protesters and stone-pelting began, injuring security personnel deployed at the site. Further attempts were made by public representatives, district administration and police officials to hold talks, but the crowd remained aggressive and appeared leaderless,” he said.
The condition of the injured is stable, and some have been shifted to Raigarh for better treatment, the collector added, and said efforts are on to identify responsible persons from the crowd to restore dialogue.
Meanwhile, police said the situation was tense but under control, and security has been tightened in the area.
Chhattisgarh Congress president, Deepak Baij, termed the clash unfortunate and blamed it on the state government’s “stubbornness”, saying it was forcibly displacing villagers and tribals from their forests and land for coal mining.
Villagers and tribals protesting the alleged forcible allotment of the coal block and a ‘fake’ public hearing in Tamnar’s Gare Pelma Sector-I were subjected to police lathi-charge at the behest of industrialists, after which the agitated villagers retaliated, he claimed.
“The villagers were holding a peaceful agitation but were provoked by the government’s approach,” Baij added.
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