Calling Dhanbad district a "hotbed" of gangs indulging in illicit coal trade, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday issued notice to Jharkhand Government over economic hardships faced by tribals and "illegal mining" in the Naxal affected area.
The Commission said that "abject poverty" was the reason behind spread of Naxalism in the region.
Regarding mining, the NHRC said that gangs were recruiting local tribals to illegally mine coal and pointed out the inadequate response to the threat posed by underground coal fires in the region. It also shared other findings made by its team about the ground situation prevailing in Dhanbad.
"Gangs recruit tribals to illegally mine coal for them and carry it to distant collection points. While going from Ranchi to Dhanbad, one could see beeline of cycles, carrying coal, up steep gradients," the NHRC said in a press statement.
"In the process of illegal mining many people are killed, but matters are not reported under the influence of the gangsters and due to the economic compulsions faced by the tribals," the statement added.
The Commission also observed that no action had been taken to either control the coal mafia or bring the illegal trade in the ambit of legal procurement.
Through the notice issued to the state's Chief Secretary on Monday, the NHRC has now asked for a detailed report on "economic hardships to tribals, illegal coal mining and trading leading to killing of many locals who are virtually living in sub human existence."
The NHRC findings also point to an alarming situation prevailing in the district due to underground coal fires and tardy implementation of rehabilitation plans.
"Areas in periphery of Dhanbad are now facing danger on account of underground coal fires," the statement said and added that the Union Government at the insistence of the President had made allocations for rehabilitation.
"If rehabilitation process is not expedited, hundreds of lives would be lost due to entire houses being consumed by these fires," the NHRC statement said.
The Commission also observed that no effective action had been taken by the state to rehabilitate those who had lost houses in underground coal fires.
It said that Naxalism was spreading because of poverty and social programmes are not being implemented effectively.
The NHRC team felt that the "main reason for lack of delivery is large number of vacancies in the concerned departments at the field level" and said that at district level contractually hired employees were not producing desired results.
"The district officials feel that stop gap arrangements are being made by employing some persons on contract basis is not a tangible substitute for regular employees," the statement issued by NHRC said.
