Relief for power units as coal workers end strike

The strike by millions of workers of Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries ended late on Wednesday, a couple of days before schedule, after talks with the government.

The miners had launched a five-day strike on Tuesday in protest at government moves to open up the industry to private companies. They ended the strike after the government agreed to re-examine the decision.

India is one of the largest producers of coal in the world, with state-run monopoly Coal India being the world's single largest producer. More than half of its energy needs are met by coal. But due to gross inefficiencies, the country is perpetually suffering from a shortage of the fuel.

The strike was called by five unions representing some 3.7 million coal workers employed with Coal India.

They decided to end the strike after Power Minister Piyush Goyal agreed to form a committee to look into any issues with a recently-passed ordinance, which would allow auctions of coal mines to private companies for their own use, as well as allowing commercial mining in the future.

Jibon Roy, a senior union leader, told Reuters news agency, "We have withdrawn the strike. The minister agreed to form a committee... They will see what are the problems in the ordinance (executive order). Normal discussions on other demands will continue."

The government took the ordinance route after India's Supreme Court last year cancelled more than 200 coal mining licences awarded to private parties by successive governments since 1993 in a corruption scandal which has cost the country tens of billions of dollars (See: President signs ordinance on e-auction of cancelled coal blocks).

The court had said that the governments gave rights to mine coal to state and private companies in a manner which was "not fair and transparent" and without competitive bidding.

Coal India stock rose as much as 3 per cent this morning after the strike ended.