JS team assures Barapukuria people of compensation

20 October 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Dinajpur

A team of parliamentary standing committee on planning ministry on Monday assured residents of Barapukuria coalmine area of providing adequate compensation and undertaking rehabilitation programmes for them if the government acquires their land for extracting coal. The committee also urged people not to pay heed to any conspiracy against the development programme taken up in the power sector. The five-member team led by Oli Ahmed, chairman of the committee, arrived in the area on Sunday to assess present situation there. Other members are Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Azizul Haque Chowdhury, ANM Shamsul Islam and Begum Hamida Banu Shova. Sources at Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) said the visit was made to motivate local people for implementation of open mining casting system in Barapurkuria to ensure highest utilisation of coal reserve in the area. Oli Ahmed at a view exchange meeting here on Monday evening said the committee would recommend utilisation of coal reserve in resolving the power crisis in the country. Replying to a question, Oli Ahmed said open mining system is safer than the underground mining and it is difficult for any government to tackle any major accident in coal mining. Pointing out open pit mine in Barapukuria, Oil said the government has to take a decision in this regard as the agreement with BCMCL and Chinese company CMC will expire in 2011. Abdur Rouf, deputy secretary of planning ministry, Mokhlesur Rahman, deputy secretary of implementation, monitoring & evaluation division, Yusuf Ali Talukdar, director (operation mining) and Muslim Ahmed, general manager (implementation) of Petrobangla and BCMCL officials were also present during the visit.