Chapter 363 Pattern
Although there are many private mines in Dhanbad, not all coal bosses have to obey Yadav.
Some families have controlled the mines for decades, much longer than Yadav has been in power.
They initially worked under the British, helping British companies develop the coal mines in Dhanbad.
Later, after the British left, they obtained the mining rights of the surrounding small mines through various means such as bribery, coercion, and fighting.
They began to gain deeper control over Dhanbad, not only having a large number of miners under their control, but also starting to participate in regional elections.
If Yadav wants to maintain stability in Dhanbad, he has to rely on their wishes or their cooperation to some extent.
Of course, these local families will also give money to Yadav when needed.
In general, the two sides have a cooperative relationship and generally get along well.
Such as Coal India, Indian Steel Corporation, Tata Steel. Not to mention these, Yadav simply does not have the courage to provoke them.
That is why he is so poor despite being the Chief Minister.
Looking around, we can't afford to offend big companies and we can't beat big families either.
In the end, they could only wholesale some small mines to private owners in exchange for a small amount of bribes.
"If you open a mine here in the future, it would be best not to provoke Wasseypur in the south," Yadav's son warned.
"Does the mine there have an owner?"
“Yes, some are not on the government’s books, but don’t go after those mines.”
"I'm a serious businessman." Ron shrugged.
"That would be great. And then there's the Jharia coalfields. Do you know which companies are the biggest?"
"Coal India, Tata Steel, the Birla Group, the Thapa family."
"You understand it very well, Mr. Sur." Yadav's son shook his head.
Ron has read the information in the past few days. The major forces in Danbad are just these four.
Coal India is a state-owned enterprise, and the following three are chaebol groups.
"The coal company is the largest here and the easiest to talk to. The others are more reasonable, especially the private mines."
"I understand. Anyone who can do business in a place like this is very resourceful." Ron emphasized the last word.
"Yes, that's it."
"So, where is the mine I want?" Ron asked.
"Over there," Yadav's son pointed northwest, "there are several good quality mines, but they haven't been announced yet."
Yadav was quite kind. The mine he arranged for Ron was deliberately far away from the south, near Wasseypur.
That place is very chaotic, and there is already unrest between the local families. If they are assigned to a large enterprise, it will easily cause conflicts.
Although the northwest direction is far away from the Dhanbad city, it is also far away from disputes.
At the same time, it is precisely because of the remote location that newly discovered coal fields are not noticed.
Bihar officials are now very secretive about the new coal fields, which they regard as a kind of bargaining chip in the hope of gaining sufficient benefits at a critical moment.
Sur Electric has a great reputation. Yadav believes that Ron has the ability to develop medium and large coal fields, so he specifically asked his son to take them for a look.
Ten thousand tons of coal and a monthly income of 800,000 rupees is still too little.
As the boss of Sur Electric Appliances, he has to consume 100,000 tons of food every month to be in line with his status.
Ron could vaguely sense these little thoughts, but his attention was now focused on the wilderness in front of him.
One after another, large black pits stretched all the way to the horizon. The thick tire tracks turned up the soil, and from a distance they looked like ditches.
But the strange thing is that there is no one living here, it is a completely barren land.
"These are all abandoned private mines," said Yadav's son.
"Has the coal been mined out?"
"No, it's just that the surface mining is done."
"Surface?"
"Yes, those small miners rely entirely on manual labor. They don't have the ability to dig very deep. Once the open-pit coal fields are completely mined, they will move to another location to continue."
"So there's still coal deep in these mines?"
“Who knows? No one cares,” Yadav’s son shrugged. “There’s so much coal in Dhanbad. We can’t mine it all.”
Ron took a deep breath. What a barbaric place.
This is the case from the grassroots to the official level. There is no management, no planning, and no supervision.
But this is also a good thing, as it facilitates the large-scale expansion of Sur Mining.
"Look, there's an illegal mine operating over there." Yadav's son pointed to a small mine.
Ron looked over and saw something faintly moving on the black rolling hills.
When their off-road vehicle got closer, they could see that it was a large group of people carrying bamboo baskets and picking up coal from the mine.
They were hunched over, barehanded and barefoot, like snails, buried in the black coal pile.
There were also clanging sounds not far away. The miners were shirtless, and their backs were shiny and black. It was hard to tell whether it was coal dust or just their skin color.
There are men, women, young and old people working in the coal mine. The older ones have gray hair and the younger ones are just learning to walk.
"Are these workers?" Ron asked.
"Both."
"Children too?"
“In Dhanbad, no matter how old he is, he cannot live without coal or he will starve to death.”
Yadav's son said that most of these miners were villagers from Dhanbad area who had been made homeless.
They originally had their own house and their own village, right in the heart of the coalfield.
However, they were later driven out of the place where they had lived for generations by the government in the name of "managing dangerous areas" without any compensation.
After becoming homeless overnight, they also went to big cities to work.
But whether in New Delhi or Mumbai, they cannot find jobs without skills and education, and can only work as low-level temporary porters. Not only is it hard work, but they also have to sleep on the streets.
When they were at their wit's end, they heard that someone in Dhanbad had obtained a "private mining license" by bribing and was recruiting coal miners, so many of them returned to their hometown.
They make their living from these mines, doing all sorts of hard labour.
Seeing that Ron seemed interested, Yadav's son simply asked the driver to stop the car and waved to a worker on the roadside.
His name is Girish. He is a driver who transports coking coal at the mine, which is a rare technical job.
At these private mines, the only mechanized operation is the coal trucks.
Girish is responsible for transporting the coal mined by manual labor to a distribution center more than ten kilometers away, and then sending it to outside Dhanbad by train.
Girish is also from Dhanbad, and his village was right here on the land when he was a child.
His father became one of the earliest miners. When he grew up, he relied on his father's connections to move from underground to surface work. He worked at least 12 hours a day and could only sleep 4 hours a day when he was busy.
He pointed to the workers in the distance and said that there are generally four types of coal miners in Dhanbad.
The first type is temporary workers in state-owned enterprises who have medical insurance and accident insurance, work 8 hours a day, are provided with one work meal, and have 2 days off a month. The monthly salary is 5100-6500 rupees.
That is, the workers employed by Coal India and Steel Authority of India are not on the payroll and are still temporary workers.
But after all, it is a state-owned enterprise, so all kinds of benefits are basically complete, even insurance.
Of course, in addition to temporary workers, Indian state-owned enterprises also have regular workers, and there are quite a few of them, as many as 50,000.
Their welfare benefits are better. Not only are their salaries much higher, but they also have a special employee community in the city of Dhanbad to solve their housing problems.
But without reliable connections, there is no way around this kind of formal position.
Most people in Dhanbad have to bribe themselves even to get temporary jobs in state-owned enterprises.
The second type of position is machine operators and drivers. These workers have the highest salary, and the income from private coal mining is about half higher than that from state-owned enterprises.
For example, Girish currently earns 12,000 rupees a month, but if he works in a state-owned enterprise, he will only earn around 8,000 rupees.
The reason is that private coal companies have long overtime hours and do not pay for any insurance for their employees.
Of course, the prerequisite is that it is a technical job.
The third type is private coal miners, who have no insurance, medical care, or meals. They are paid 50 rupees a day and receive additional allowances for work beyond their capacity.
For example, for ground excavators, an additional 5 rupees will be paid for every 100 kg of excess work, and for porters, 3 rupees will be paid for every 50 kg of excess work, and so on.
Private coal mines cannot afford large-scale mining equipment and can only mine coal manually and then transport it to trucks.
This kind of work is very dangerous, with landslides and deaths all the time. Therefore, the salary is relatively higher than other jobs, otherwise no one would do it.
There is no shortage of desperate people in Dhanbad, and many are willing to go to private coal mines to get more money.
The fourth type is non-staff personnel, namely the children Ron saw, child laborers.
There is no written agreement or verbal agreement, and work is done on a first-come, first-served basis. Those under 10 years old can only carry broken coal, which costs 1 rupee per basin. Those aged 10 to 16 years old can use bamboo baskets, which cost 4 rupees for 50 kilograms.
Therefore, many children will falsify their age just to earn an extra 2 rupees.
These children are not tall. Some teenagers are already 17 years old, but are less than 1.4 meters tall. The baskets stacked on their heads are half a meter high.
There is a pair of brothers, about eighteen or nineteen years old, who grew up here and have been working as coal miners for more than ten years.
They had never been to school and didn't know what the outside world was like. The most expensive gift the brothers received was their coming-of-age gift, a pair of jeans their father bought them for 300 rupees.
If you ask them why they don't go to school, they will tell you: Coal controls the lives of the people of Dhanbad, and without coal they will starve to death.
In order to avoid starvation, everyone had to go down into the mines, regardless of gender, age or status.
Ron curiously asked the dark-skinned boy if he wanted to see the outside world.
He turned his head to look at the coal on the ground, and after a long while he replied, "This is what we are born with, and we won't have to bear it in the next life."
What a great caste system!
Dhanbad is a long-standing "untouchable area," where everyone born there is told: "Only by abiding by the law and atonement can you change your caste in the next life and become a high-caste person."
"Mr. Sur, are you going to mine by hand or with machinery?" Yadav's son asked on the way.
"What do you suggest?"
"Labor is cheap and you don't have to spend a lot of money on mining equipment. If you need manpower, I can help you arrange it." Yadav's son was very positive.
"Maybe machinery would be more suitable, but let's take a look at the mine first." Ron said nothing.
Yadav still underestimated him. Sur Mining is not like those open-pit coal mining bosses.
Whether he understands group operations or not, if the coalfield is suitable, he can become the sixth super-large plant in Dhanbad.
(End of this chapter)
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