After instructions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee to speed up the land acquisition process for the upcoming Deucha Pachami coal mines, which is supposed to be the second highest coal reserve in the world, state chief secretary Manoj Pant and director general of police (DGP), Rajeev Kumar rushed to Birbhum district today.

In her administrative meeting, chief minister Mamata Banerjee was annoyed with the slow work of Deucha Pachami coal mines project, including land acquisition and had even pulled up Birbhum district magistrate Bidhan Roy for the excessive delay and slowness in her dream project, which the state wishes to showcase as a mega coal mining project before the upcoming 2026 Assembly polls.

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She even set a seven-day deadline to the Birbhum DM to settle all the issues. Within 24 hours of the CM directive, a high-level team of the state government held a review meeting and looked at ways to expedite the project construction.

Today morning, chief secretary Manoj Pant, DGP Rajeev Kumar, advisor to CM, Alapan Bandyopadhyay etc. arrived at Bolpur station by train from Kolkata and rushed to Mohammad Bazar. They were accompanied by P B Selim, secretary of West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL) and Kajal Sheikh, sabhadhipati of Birbhum zilla parishad.

Talking to the Media at Bolpur today, Mr Pant said that the team will visit and inspect the coal bearing area and will also hold an important meeting with the local tribal people, whose land will be required for the proposed mega Rs 12,000-crore project.

The meeting with the tribal people has been organised at the conference room of Mohammad Bazar BDO office. ADG (western zone), Ashok Prasad, DIG (Burdwan range), Shyam Singh, SP Raj Narayan Mukherjee, various ADMS and SDOs were also present in the meeting.

A large section of people are unwilling to give land for the coal project in Birbhum. Even those who have already given their land allegedly are yet to receive the full compensation amount.

Work for land acquisition has gone slow, leading to delay in execution of the coal mines project. Besides offering cheques as compensation, the state is also giving jobs.

In December last year DM Bidhan Roy had handed over appointment letters to 1,500 land losers of this project, most of them having been provided jobs, as per the announcement of CM Mamata Banerjee.