Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar has requested the government to expedite the rehabilitation work of the population affected by underground fire and landslide in Jharia coalfield. Poddar has expressed concern over the release of very small amount against the amount provided under the master plan made for it. He has also requested to link the rehabilitation program to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Poddar raised this matter through a starred question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Answering Poddar's question, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi said that the government has approved a master plan for rehabilitation of people affected by underground fire and landslide in Jharia coalfields of Jharkhand, which has to be implemented in10 years. A provision of Rs 2311.50 crore has been made for extinguishing the fire under the master plan, against which only Rs 37 lakh has been released. A provision of Rs 4780.60 crore has been made for rehabilitation and resettlement against which Rs 1476.22 crore has been released so far.

Citing the study done by the World Bank, Joshi said that in the year 1996, the spread of surface fire was 8.9 square kilometers. BCCL had prepared 45 schemes to extinguish the fire, out of which active fire has been extinguished in 17 schemes. In the remaining places, due to non-shifting of Dhanbad-Chandrapura railway line and due to non-shifting of the populated families in a valid and illegal manner over the fire affected area, the fire handling work was affected.

Joshi said that according to the approved master plan in the year 2009, 54159 families were to be rehabilitated from 595 places. The Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA), working under the Government of Jharkhand, identified 104946 families (32064 legal and 72882 illegal) that were to be rehabilitated based on the recent demographic survey. JRDA has started construction of 18352 houses, out of which 6352 houses have been constructed and 2152 non-BCCL families have been shifted so far.