Brick kiln owners to hold protest in Delhi tomorrow

Amritsar, March 6

Members of the Amritsar Brick Kiln Owners Association will take part in a protest against spiralling coal prices in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on March 8. On the protest call given by the All- India Brick and Tiles Manufacturers Federation, brick kiln operators will agitate against the government for its failure to prevent the constant rise in the price of coal. A metric tonne of coal, which was Rs 10,000 in March 2021, now costs Rs 28,000. After three-fold rise in coal price during the past one year, brick kilns are making all-out efforts to ramping up capital.

There are about 2,500 brick kilns in the state and their owners are busy in arranging liquidity to procure coal whose cost has shot up three times in the past one year. Normally, a brick kiln annually requires coal worth Rs 50 lakh whose cost is now nearing Rs 1.50 crore.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Mukesh Nanda, president of the association, requested the government to initiate measures to offset the spiraling coal prices. For this, he demanded the release of Raniganj coal. He divulged that brick kiln owners were being supplied coal imported from the USA. He blamed five mega business families of the country for conniving with black sheep in the government to stall mining of domestic coal. These houses are promoting the import of coal from overseas to give them undue profit.

He said the prohibition on mining of Raniganj coal was lifted by the National Green Tribunal in 2021. “Several tonnes of coal was lying unutilised in the godowns of Assam, awaiting government nod to clear the stocks.”