Kolkata : West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her government would invest Rs 30,000 crore for the Deucha Pachami coal mining project in Birbhum district and has created a separate fund of Rs 10,000 crore for rehabilitation of those who have consented to provide land.
Addressing a meeting of the West Bengal Industrial Promotion Board at the state secretariat Nabanna, Banerjee said already 1500 families at the site have consented to give land to the government for the project that involves the country’s largest coal block with reserves of 2,102 million tonnes of black gold.. She said the project to be launched by the government itself would create over one lakh jobs and the local people would get preference for jobs in downstream units.. She said besides Rs 30,000 crore to be invested in the project, another Rs 10,000 crore was earmarked for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the land givers.
Many land givers were present in the meeting, and they were given alternative land title deeds, money and job appointment letters. She said the jobs will be created for Group C and Group D posts, and the appointment would be made according to merit and qualification. For now, 5100 jobs have been created. Besides providing double the price of the land, Rs 7 lakh is being given for constructing houses, and Rs 1 lakh more for shifting. She said every infrastructure for the land givers were being created like setting up of schools, hospital, roads and other essentials for their comfortable stay. The government has already increased the monetary package for the tribals. The state government has set up a special purpose vehicle – Bengal Birbhum Coalfields Ltd. – to develop the mine.