KalingaTV News Network
Sundergarh: Quarrying and supply of coal at the Kulda Open cast mine (OPC), a subsidiary of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), here was badly hit on Friday after a group of youths under the aegis of Akhil Bharat Yuvak Sangh, an association of local youth, started an indefinite strike demanding employment for local people in the mines as well as limiting the working hours of the employees to standard working hours specified by the department of labour and employment.
According to reports, hundreds of youths from the Kulda area marched in a rally holding placards this morning and reached the main gate of Kulda mines. Shouting slogans against the mines authorities for employing outsiders, the agitators locked up the gate and started an indefinite strike. Led by the members of the Sangh, the agitators also warned the mines authorities against forcing staffs to work 12 hours a day, which is beyond the standard working hours of 8 hours.
Informing on the protest, Rajendra Nayak, Secretary, Akhil Bharat Yuvak Sangh, said as the repeated appeals to the MCL authorities for absorption of local unemployed in the coal mines as well as demand for adherence to standard working hours had fallen on deaf ears, the Sangh took the decision to launch an indefinite strike. It would halt the production at the Kulda OPC till all demands are fulfilled, he added.
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