BARAPUKURIA COALMINE Affected villagers besiege mining office for compensation

Hundreds of residents of the ten villages affected by land subsidence caused by coal-mining in Barapukuria on Thursday besieged the office of the mining company for about three hours, demanding due compensation.
They gathered in front of the office of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd at around 11:00am, demanding full implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding that the villagers and the mining authorities had signed in May for payment of compensation for subsidence of their land.
Scuffling and chase and counter-chase took place between the protesters and the police at one point after the latter were deployed in the area. Angry people pelted the office building with brickbats and shattered the window panes.
The people alleged that although the authorities signed the MoU three months back, they were yet to get full compensation for subsidence of their land. The authorities have distributed around Tk 2 crore so far among the residents for the damage caused to their belongings like houses, schools and other establishments.
People complained that the authorities have also not informed them of what steps were being taken to compensate them.
However, the villagers stopped their protest programme after officials of the BCMCL assured them that their demands would be met soon, but in phases.
The managing director of the BCMCL, Md Quamruzzaman, told New Age that they had already given around Tk 2 crore to around 2,500 affected families of ten villages.
‘This amount was given as a lump sum on an emergency basis for compensating them for the damage caused to their establishments before we compensate them for subsidence of their lands. Each of the families got Tk 5,000-6,000 for each of the rooms in their homes. More will be given to them later,’ he said.
Quamruzzaman claimed that a few people with vested interest were instigating the general people to realise a huge amount of money from the government.
He said that the recent problem arose after they had fixed compensation for six Chatals (concrete yards for drying rice) at Tk 81,000, but the owners were demanding Tk 27 lakh. ‘These people are instigating the general people for realising the money,’ he claimed.
He said that Petrobangla had already taken up a Tk 300 crore project for compensating the villagers for loss of land and also acquiring land from them. ‘Once this project is approved by the government, the affected people will get the full compensation,’ he said.
The local people, however, said that they had participated in the demonstration as they had no knowledge of any project of the government for compensating them.