High-level meeting discusses rehabilitation for land subsidence victims under Raniganj Master Plan

A high-level meeting on the implementation of the Raniganj Master Plan for rehabilitation and resettlement was held at the Asansol Circuit House.

- DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY

The meeting was chaired by West Burdwan District Magistrate S. Ponnambalam and attended by the State Minister for Law, Judiciary and Labour, Moloy Ghatak (photo). The discussions centred on the extensive Raniganj Master Plan under the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme.

It is worth noting that former Asansol MP Haradhan Roy of the CPI-M had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court in the late 1990s, following a report in The Statesman highlighting issues of land subsidence and underground fires.

Nearly a decade later, the Supreme Court issued a judgment directing Coal India Limited and the Union Coal Minister to formulate two master plans ~ one for the Jharia underground fire and subsidence in Jharkhand, and another for the Raniganj region. However, by that time, Haradhan Roy had passed away.