HYDERABAD: Lakhra coalfield workers` union on Wednesday appealed to the authorities concerned to save workers` livelihood by re-awarding lease for mining to Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) and putting an end to `illegal` coal extraction by former contractors of the corporation.CBA union president Madad Ali Khoso and deputy joint secretary Waseem Khattak said at a news conference here that the PMDC was given two leases for 5,000 acres in the coalfield in 1982 where the corporation spent Rs770 million on establishing infrastructure for mining. Still, the Sindh government did not renew its lease in 2015 andawarded both the leases to a new company named Sindh Lakhra Coal Mining Company (SLCMC), they said.

They said that a national institution was deprived of the leases it rightly deserved and a `new and inexperienced` company was given the same and the leases of private companies were extendedover 150,000 acres.

They said that PMDC had challenged allotment of lease to another company in Sindh High Court which termed it illegal and directed Sindh energy department to hold open auction. They said that as per SHC`s order, PMDC shut down mining work and directed its contractors to stop coal extraction but theydid not stop the activity.

Coal worth millions of rupees was being extracted and that according to an estimate, SLCMC officers, engineers and employees under patronage of influential people were `stealing` coal worth Rs6m on a daily basis, they said and appealed to NAB to hold an inquiry into this.-Staff Correspondent