CURATED BY – YASHPAL SINGH JAT | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Sharda Maa Logistics Private Limited Company, which operates from Naela in Chhattisgarh under Bijuri police station at the extreme end of Anuppur district, had signed a contract with the ADRM of the railways on 7 February 2023 to build a railway coal siding on railway land for 35 years for the transportation of coal. Sharda Maa Logistics Private Company did not fulfill the terms of the contract made about one and a half years ago, however, during this time the Mittal brothers, who were the owners of the company, kept sidelining themselves by giving ownership rights to each other.
9.018 acres of land was given by the railway to Sharda Maa Logistics Private Limited Company as per the conditions specified under the contract. As per the rules, if the conditions of the contract are not fulfilled, the contract should automatically become void, but due to the financial greed of the railway officials, they are being openly protected, due to which all the rules seem to be becoming void. On one hand, the railway management has not yet cancelled the contract made with Maa Sharda Logistics Private Limited Company even after the conditions were not fulfilled, and on the other hand, the siding permission taken by them on the railway land is being operated as an illegal storage of coal.

According to the rules of the Madhya Pradesh government, permission for storage of coal is not given within a radius of 50 kilometers from any coal mine, this is the reason why no permission for storage of coal has been given here by the Anuppur District Collector and the Mineral Department and no such application has been made by Sharda Maa Logistics till now.

However, even after the complaints, the team of the Mineral Department never did the physical verification of the coal storage here and even did not inspect the validity of the stored coal. It may be a different matter that after various complaints, the department may have completed the paperwork but till date, no storage permission has been given by the department here. Despite this, thousands of tonnes of coal has been brought from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and kept in the siding here for several months without valid documents. Conditions of Railway Management not fulfilled
On 7 February 2023, Sharda Maa Logistics Private Limited has signed a contract with Railway Management for 35 years till 6 February 2058, an annual rent of Rs. 13 lakh 66006 was to be paid every year. In the 6-page contract, it was first clarified that work will be done to lay the siding here, but during the last one and a half years, the connectivity of the siding with the railway could not be established till date. In the name of BBSB, about four to 500 meters away from the coal setting of the railway, Maa Sharda Logistics Private Limited operates a coal siding on the railway land without any railway connectivity, without making a siding, which is named as railway siding. The administration and police of Anuppur district are being kept in the dark and they are being told that this is the coal siding of the railway, whereas the reality is that the rules of the railway were not followed completely. Without laying the railway line, without railway connectivity, coal is brought here through trailers and then it is lifted from here. It is sent to BBSB. Connivance of the Mineral Department

Two sidings have been approved by the railway management to transport coal from the railway in Bijuri. The first setting is in the name of BBSB, which has been operating for the past several years and is considered to be the railway siding. One and a half years ago, on 7 February 2023, Sharda Maa Logistics was allotted land around 9.018 acres to build a siding. It was to be connected directly to the railway and this land section was to be connected to the railway line for the siding, but this could not be done even in one and a half years. For one and a half years, Sharda Maa Logistics has been acting as an illegal coal storage on railway land. The coal that should be dumped in the siding directly connected to the railway line, falls on the side of Sharda Maa Logistics four to 500 meters away from the railway siding and then from here it is loaded in other vehicles and sent to BBSB without ETP and valid documents. Apart from the Mineral Department, the local police and STF etc. never conducted any investigation in this regard. When the coal came out of Sharda Maa Logistics and reached the railway line, it was found that the coal was not in the railway's land. When it goes to the siding, neither is it checked nor does any document remain with the vehicle for transporting coal from one place to another.