Maoists halt mining work as firm refuses to meet their extortion demand

The members of a Maoist splinter group forcibly stopped work in a Central Coalfields Mining Project by an outsourcing company, asking it to accept their extortion demands if it wanted to resume work.

"At least 25 extremists of the Jharkhand Prastuti Committee went to the Birsa Coal Mining Project, to which CCL has outsourced the work on the outskirts of Hazaribagh," Deputy Superintendent of Police Satish Chandra Jha said in Hazaribagh on Monday.

They asked the workers to stop work, gave them a phone number warning not to restart work till the amount was settled, Jha added.

The DSP said the police came to know about the incident from villagers as the company did not inform them.

However, the company engaged in the work agreed to file an FIR in connection with the incident, the police officer said.

The outsourcing company was assigned to produce 30 lakh tonnes of coal per annum from the project.