HYDERABAD: The Punjab government’s order to brick kilns’ operators to observe a shutdown from Oct 20 to Dec 31 has set alarm bells ringing across the Lakhra coalfields, having several thousand miners and other workers associated with its over 400 mines. The coalfields are a major source of supplies to brick kilns in Punjab, besides other parts of the country.

“Even a few days’ closure of coalfields means total destruction of mines and massive layoffs,” leaders of panicked workers told a media team visiting Lakhra on Tuesday.

They made an impassioned appeal to the federal, Punjab and Sindh governments as well as the judiciary to save the mining industry from a disaster and its workers from economic devastation. “Instead, the coal supplies may be diverted to the energy sector, which is an option,” they said.

Mining companies, workers fear massive layoffs

They informed the media team that the Punjab government’s notice would result in the closure of around 100,000 brick kilns in that province for 70 days. They noted that the closure order was aimed at controlling smog in Punjab.

“The Lakhra coalfields supply 90 per cent of [their] coal production to brick kilns in Punjab and the rest to certain cement factories,” they said.

Expressing their serious concern over the kilns’ closure order, they said “if we shut down a mine even for a single week, we will put it at the risk of fire; or it may be submerged in groundwater”.

Not only the industry would suffer losses to the tune of billions of rupees, but over 50,000 people working at Lakhra coalfield would be rendered jobless if a shutdown for several weeks was observed, they said.

These workers included miners, loaders and other labourers, as well as those engaged in health, education and other basic facilities being provided to the thousands of workers in Lakhra coalfield on Tuesday.

Providing an example, the leaders said “Friday is observed as the weekly holiday but when we get back to work the next day, we have to first undertake repairs in the mines that would catch fire in the blind alleys deep inside. In some cases, we would have to build a brick wall before starting to extinguish the fire. Similarly, the repair work may pertain to flushing out accumulated groundwater by employing machinery. Sometimes wooden roofs inside the mines cave in if they are left unattended even for a day,” they explained.

Surveyor Zarbadshah said Lakhra coal had more sulphur than it was found in the coal produced in other provinces. That’s why it is highly inflammable.

Lakhra mine owners’ coal management committee chairman Abdul Samad Raisani said he intended to move the Supreme Court against the “unwise” decision taken by the Punjab government. He said the people being affected by the brick kilns’ closure in Punjab would also hold protest rallies against the closure, which was bound to totally destroy the Lakhra coalfields.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018