In Bengal’s coal belt, mining fallout, lack of jobs a refrain as TMC, BJP play blame game

A villager says: “It is risky to go to the coal mines and no one wants to risk their life. But we have mouths to feed, so we go out early in the morning when it is still dark. We try to gather a few sacks of coal scattered around the colliery and then sell it. There are no jobs here. This is also not an agricultural belt, so the only way to earn a living is by collecting coal and selling it.”

Kalpana Bauri stands in front of her run-down house, hoping that it would be rebuilt again one day. “How much can the mud huts here withstand the blasting that goes on in the mines everyday. One day the roof over my house and cow-shed collapsed. We survived as we not at home, but both of our cows died,” she says, adding that many houses in the village developed cracks due to the mine blasting.

The affected villagers complain they have not got any compensation from the government or the colliery for these damages.

The industrial area marked with the Raniganj coalfield is part of the Paschim Bardhaman’s Asansol Dakshin Assembly constituency which is scheduled for voting in the first phase of West Bengal elections on April 23.

While the principal Opposition BJP has made inroads in the region over the years, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has intensified its attempts to regain its ground here. In the 2021 elections, the BJP’s Agnimitra Paul had won the Asansol Dakshin seat by defeating the TMC’s Saayoni Ghosh by about 4,500 votes. This time, the TMC has fielded a local two-time MLA Tapas Banerjee against Paul.

The region has seen industrial slowdown in recent years. The Raniganj coalfield had earlier provided jobs for thousands of workers but, locals alleged, many of them were subsequently laid off, which led to many of them being forced to migrate to other places or states for work.This also triggered a rise in illegal coal mining or extraction in the belt.

Several decades of mining have also left underground voids, leading to cracks in houses and occasional ground collapse in parts of the Asansol Dakshin constituency, where the issues of employment, rehabilitation, compensation and safety have again surfaced as key talking points ahead of the elections.

In Palpara’s Tirat village, every house bears the mark of mining in the form of cracks, while its residents say the coal dust from the mines have affected their health.

Subhankar Paul’s house is located barely half a kilometre from a mine. “Cracks have plagued by house since 2022,” he says. “For the past few months, the blasting seems to have stopped but otherwise every afternoon the houses would shake from it. And there would be no one to listen to our complaints.”

Another Tirat resident Sandip Paul, who got his house under a state government scheme, also shows deep cracks running through the walls of his house.

Some villagers say they have fears of land subsidence due to years of mining without “adequate safety measures” being put in place. “If an earthquake hits the village, our houses will collapse like a pack of cards,” says one of them.

Several locals claim that when the coal mines were intensely operationalised the authorities had promised about ensuring jobs, healthcare and education for their families, alleging that “none of those has been fulfilled”. “Elections come and go but our conditions remain unchanged. We still have no jobs and are even forced to sleep on an empty stomach at times. When elections come, parties come with a bunch of promises and then they vanish,” alleges a villager Dipali Paul.

The TMC and the BJP have traded allegations over these public concerns.

TMC candidate Tapas Banerjee blames the BJP-ruled Centre for the plight of mining-affected people, telling The Indian Express that “The ECL has been carrying out mining here for a long time, but the sand packing which they are supposed to do to fill in the gaps has not been done. So there is land caving there.” He alleges that the central government has not given compensation to the affected people despite making pledges, adding that “when we come to power, we will again speak to them (Centre)” in this regard.

Asansol-Durgapur BJP district president Debtanu Bhattacharya told the Express: “The TMC has a syndicate here and runs an illegal coal racket. They threaten local people that if they do not vote for them they will not be allowed to gather coal. If the BJP doesn’t come to power, the locals won’t be able to do any work here.”

Coal ‘scam’

The central agencies like the CBI and ED have kept the heat on the TMC leaders over the last few years in connection with an alleged multi-crore coal scam in Bengal which, the agencies say, involved large-scale illegal extraction and diversion of coal from mines operated by the ECL.

In the run-up to the upcoming elections, the ED has cracked down on the political consultancy firm I-PAC, raiding its premises and those of its directors. The I-PAC is managing the TMC’s poll campaign.

Last week, the ED arrested an I-PAC director Vinesh Chandel in connection with a money laundering case linked to the coal scam, who has since been sent to its 10-day custody.

In January this year, the ED had also conducted raids at the premises of another I-PAC director Pratik Jain, which had led to its direct confrontation with TMC supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The ED has even questioned TMC national general secretary and Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, and his wife Rujira over this alleged scam.

The TMC has rejected the agencies’ investigations as “politically-motivated” moves driven by the BJP.