Activists, not in favour of the mining project to be undertaken at Deocha Pachami in Birbhum district of West Bengal, have planned a seven-day walk from Kolkata to the region, to highlight the consequences, including alleged large-scale displacement of the local residents.
“We are going to start walking from 15th February and will conclude on 21st, International Mother Language Day at Deucha Pachami. We are not going to take any permission because from past experience we know that they (authorities concerned) will not give permission. So we will inform them. Around 25 people will walk, and they will be joined by people in the districts. We expect around 500-1000 people to join each day’s walk,” said Joy Raj, convenor of the People’s Forum Against Politics of Hatred.
Joy claims that while there have been surveys and the West Bengal government has put forward certain numbers, the actual number of people who will be affected is not clear. “We are filing RTIs, but not getting any answers,” he added.
The block in the region concerned, it’s estimated, has huge reserves of coal. While the state government is offering compensation and rehabilitation packages to the villagers who will get affected, political factions and activists have raised questions.
“The government is pompously declaring that there is a massive load of coal there, and they would like to extract it and that would be a great business for us. But what we are questioning and with expert information and inputs from technologists is that there has been no experiment even in our country post-independence of a mining open mining to that depth to that extent anywhere in our country,” said Samik Bandopadhyay, chairperson of the advisory committee to the Forum.
“Meanwhile, there is an attempt to convince the people that we are going to give you jobs compensation and in the process the Adivasis of the area, they are being thrown out of the place. Once displacement happens, middlemen enter the field. We don’t have, whenever you come to figures or estimates. The government hasn’t given us estimates, people there don't know. The operation has already started,” he added.
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