Nearly 1,000 tribal people held a meeting on Saturday evening and vowed to stop government officials from “digging an inch” of soil for the Deocha-Pachami coal mine before their demands for proper compensation and jobs were met.
The meeting was held under the aegis of the Birbhum Adivasi Gaonta at Sagarbandhi near Mohammedbazar. Sagarbandhi falls under the site of the state-run project, for which plots of the Gaonta tribe need to be acquired.
“We need to know that our lives will go on after the project comes up. We want the compensation packages that we demanded and employment assurances,” said a protester.
Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha accompanied by two senior Nabanna officials had landed in Deocha on July 9 and held a meeting with stakeholders and landowners expressing a desire to start the work soon.
