
Bauxite mining workers in Raipur have reportedly refused to work as a form of protest demanding full wages and alleging that the contractor appointed by Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC) was treating them unfairly and giving insufficient money.

The protesting miners from the surrounding villages even shut down the weighbridge so that the bauxite laden trucks could not be weighed before dispatched. Violence erupted when the contractor tried to forcibly load the bauxite.
At Narmadapur, Mainpat, around 400 villagers were working as labourers in the bauxite mines of government-run CMDC. The contractor promised to pay Rs. 350 for mining a tonne of bauxite but paid Rs. 102 instead.
The labourers reportedly lodged a complaint to CMDC senior officials but no action taken till date against the contractor, which finally resulted in the outburst by the labourers.
On Thursday, November 22, CMDC contractor Rajesh Agrawal began loading trucks with the mined bauxite, but the workers stalled it. The angry contractor retorted that it was his personal property and not a government mine but the workers did not relent.
Contractor Rajesh Agrawal said, “It is my property, no one has anything to do with it. More than required mining has taken place but has not been lifted. There is no strike.”
The labourers claimed that the contractor not only promised them to pay the higher wages but also the arrears and bonus.
Sixty-five-year-old Satyanarayan Yadav, a security personnel, said he was promised Rs. 8000 a month but had not been paid for the last one year.
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