Phulbari (Dinajpur) Correspondent

The affected residents held a human chain programme to protest the construction of a solar plant in the sunken area adjacent to the Barapukuria coal mine near Phulbari in Dinajpur on Tuesday.

At around 11 am, thousands of male and female villagers of several villages affected by coal extraction from the underground coal mine gathered at Patrapara junction adjacent to the mine and held a human chain program for an hour. Montasir Afsani Sagar, Rezwan Hossain Bappi of Patrapara village, Asad Sarkar, Golam Kibria, Hafizur Rahman etc. spoke during the human chain program.

Mantasir Afsani Sagar said that construction of solar plant is being done by suddenly enclosing the agricultural land of the affected villagers adjacent to the coal mine. No one told the local residents anything about this. The residents have not yet received full compensation for their losses. So far no compensation has been given for the cracks in houses including mosques, madrasas, cemeteries.

Construction of solar plant is being started without compensation to the victims. The 10-point agreement signed by the coal mine authority with the affected villagers on May 1, 2009 has not yet been fully implemented.

The mining authorities are not paying any attention to the above victims. No work will be allowed in the area until full compensation is paid to the victims, including full implementation of the 10-point agreement. A tough movement will be developed in the future to realize the demands.

ATM Nuruzzaman, General Manager (GM-Surface Operations) of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL), said that setting up solar plants is the work of the government. If someone is not allowed to do government work, the government will look into it.

The mine bought the land by compensating all those previously affected by the coal extraction. At present, if anyone has suffered any loss due to coal extraction, the mine authority must take the initiative to pay compensation after inspecting it on site.

The Chinese contractor company implementing the mine has been asked to investigate and inform the mine authority if anyone is harmed due to coal extraction. So far no such incident has been reported by the Chinese contractor.