Bhubaneswar, April 7: Senior BJP leader and former Sundargarh MLA Kusum Tete has urged Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to launch a high-level probe into the widespread coal smuggling in the Hemgir block of Sundargarh district.
In a letter to the CM, Tete informed about the illegal coal trafficking taking place from the region to outside the state, leading to huge revenue loss for the government. She pointed out that Hemgir's Gopalpur area, home to Asia's largest opencast coal mines operated by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), has seen rampant coal smuggling by criminals and coal mafias, despite the presence of the government and law enforcement agencies.
Tete emphasized that while the government receives substantial revenue from legal mining operations, illegal smuggling, especially from the Kulapada and Telendihi reserve forests near Gopalpur, continues unabated. The smuggling ring allegedly spans a 30 km radius and involves over 100 mining sites and 40 stockyards. The coal is reportedly being smuggled to neighboring states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
She also noted that recent raids by the Sundargarh district administration, police, and forest department failed to result in any such arrests or breakthroughs, leaving the masterminds of the operation untouched.
