Short fiction: Ghanshu and other families in a coal town are forced to move as sinkholes appear

Throughout the night, the self-appointed leaders of the coal town descended upon the coal company management and made all kinds of demands – food, water, electricity, housing, permanent jobs. The three officers sat in their office, bleary-eyed and grim, waiting for morning. They knew better than to respond to an angry mob.

Phones rang through the night – the Collector, the SP, the Minister, the media, the General Manager – everyone wanted reports. What was there to report? For years, the coal company had given notices about which no one gave a damn. Some of the very persons who were asking for reports today had stood with the people against eviction. Nearly three hundred families would have to be shifted out, and the coal company would be asked to find the funds for relief and rehabilitation. The Area Manager calculated in his head how much all of it would cost the company, and it exasperated him, holding the company responsible when it was really the fault of these idiots. Weren’t they warned year in and year out?

“Do something, do something, do something,” the mob insisted.

The Area Manager finally opened his mouth, “Look, we told you there are very old, abandoned underground mines in that...

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