About Dhirauli Coal block:
Dhirauli is the largest coal block to be auctioned in Madhya Pradesh, both in terms of area (2672 Ha.) and geological resource (586 MT). The block is located along the western part of the Singrauli Coal Field. Presently, Adani Group’s Stratatech Mineral Resources Pvt Ltd is working on the Dhirauli coal mine which has geological reserves of 586.39 million tonnes and is estimated to generate Rs 398.27 crore revenue per annum when the mine attains a peak production capacity of 3 million tonnes. The project will last for about 87 years, of which 40 years of coal mining is proposed through opencast mines. It is proposed to excavate 6.5 million tonnes of coal per year from the Dhirauli coal project.
A Public Hearing was announced on 04 May 2022 for getting environmental clearance on the Dhirauli Coal Block and to spread awareness among the villagers.
Detail:
A Public hearing was organized for environmental clearance for the Dhirauli coal project under Sarai tehsil in village Berdaha. The stage was organized by Dr. Neeraj Verma, Regional Officer, Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board in the presence of Shri DP Varman, Additional Collector of Singrauli district. In this program, about 2000 local villagers from all the eight villages affected by the project were present who openly supported the project. Along with this, some villagers also put forth some ideas for the social and economic development of the people affected by this project.
Arrangements for the rehabilitation and resettlement of people of all the eight villages to be affected by the Dhirauli project will be made as per the provisions contained in the Act 2013.
In consultation with the District Officer, Stratatech Mineral Resources Private Limited will prepare a package for rehabilitation and resettlement, in which basic facilities like health, education, and drinking water will be arranged.
Various aspects of air and water quality, water resources, noise level, land environment, and soil quality were studied based on prescribed standards by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and found that all are within the limits of the prescribed standards and are appropriate. Provision for environmental management plan has also been kept.
Challenges:
- Inviting reporters and journalists to the Dhirauli village
- To divert and stop the activists who were against the project from making any issue during the hearing
- To maintain the decorum and peace of the hearing between the villagers, activists, media, and all the guests present there
- To manage multiple media persons on-ground
- To deter the media from doing any negative stories on both the hearing and the coal block
- To get all the important pointers covered in the print publications
PR Strategy:
PR Tool used: On-ground media activation
Pre Event
- The team personally visited the 8 affected villages- Aamdand, Amraikhoh, Belwar, Sirsavah, Basi Berdah, Jhalri, Dhirauli, and Fatpani to talk about their opinions on this project and discussed their concerns
- The team did media visits two days before the hearing to take their feedback and invite them to the public hearing
On the Day of the Event
- The proper seating arrangement of more than 100 people
- Proper arrangement of food and water
- Travel arrangements for the media and the guests
- The highlight of the event was that the media was keenly interested in knowing more about the land acquisition, and mine projects and all their queries were answered thoroughly by the Collector and Adani team.
Post Event
- Took feedback again from villagers
- Issued press release along with proper pictures
- Conducted a final media round and answered their remaining queries
Result:
- The public hearing of the Dhirauli Coal block concluded successfully.
- Garnered big-size coverage in all the publications like Dainik Bhaskar, Patrika, Dainik Jagran, Raj Express, etc
- Same-day coverage on the websites
- Kept the client in the loop and updated the client on time.
- Shared a consolidated report of all the coverage garnered within the next two days.
