Asansol. ECL's ambitious project is proposed in Haripur. Villagers have started protesting against the new open-cast mining project. During a public convention held in Haripur, a resolution for the 'Save Village, Save Colliery' movement was passed. According to the agitators, ECL has identified a total of 4,218 hectares of land in Pandaveswar, Andal, and Jamuria for open-cast mining. In the first phase of the OCP, there is a plan to start work on 2,100 hectares of land. It is claimed that this large project along National Highway 14, stretching from Shankarpur to Krishnanagar colliery, will affect 32 villages, eight underground mines, several markets, schools, and hospitals. To launch a major protest against this, a Sangram Samiti was formed, with advocate Soumen Mitra appointed as the convener. Other members of the committee include Subhash Bauri, Nilima Ruidas, Sarthai Soren, Haradhan Gop, and Mohammad Sabir. Convener Soumen Mitra said that in the first phase, extensive promotional and awareness campaigns will be conducted in the affected villages to mobilize maximum support, followed by demonstrations before the district administration and ECL headquarters.
Participating in the convention, CPM District Secretary and Colliery Mazdoor Sabha leader, former MLA Gouranga Chatterjee, said that several villages like Bhatmura, Bhaluka, Hanstiha, and Bilpahari have already been destroyed by open-cast mining. If Shankarpur colliery, Millennium Incline, and Choda CBI Incline open-cast mines are established in the first phase, workers will be transferred and the entire local economy will collapse. He warned that if all underground mines such as Haripur, New Kenda, Khaskenda, Krishnanagar, Bahula, and Siduli are converted into open-cast mines in the second phase, several panchayats and villages will be wiped out within the next 10 years. Girish Srivastava and CITU leader Manoj Dutt explicitly stated that by using modern technology, it is possible to extract thousands of lakhs of tons of coal from underground mines without destroying the area, and the central government should adopt that alternative path.
