Alok Kumar Gupta Nearly half a million people living in and around the Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand have to be shifted to control underground fires. But the government has no sound strategy for their rehabilitation and the people have no trust in the government Kujama village in Jharkhand

Only committees for fighting fire 1922: First committee set up under the coal ministry to check the Jharia fire and prevent subsidence. No action taken on its report. 1964: Director of CMRI appointed to carry out a survey and suggest measures to save coal that had caught fire. 1976: The Union energy ministry constituted a committee to examine safety in the nationalized coal

S P Banerjee, former director of the Indian School of Mines University in Dhanbad on how to douse fire 1. Why

It is doubtful the master plan will see the light of the day The relocation plan would have made more sense if it was done soon after a committee set up by the energy ministry in 1976 found underground fire active in the Jharia coalfield. Then, bccl did not even consider relocation. The Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (jrda), responsible for shifting non- bccl