The
government will start compensating the villagers who have been affected
due to land subsidence for coal extraction at Barapukuria coal mining
site, a senior official said.
“We will compensate 1351 households
of 515 families permanently,” Dinajpur deputy commissioner Jamal Uddin
told daily sun on Wednesday.
The district administration will
start compensating the affected people from today that will be completed
within the next two months, according to him.
Under the package, the authority planned to acquire 627 acres of land as the households lost their lands due to land subsidence.
The
government will compensate Tk 2 million for an acre of agriculture land
and Tk 2.5 million for homes, streets and commercial lands.
“We have also compensated over 300 landless, vulnerable and marginal farmers paying Tk 200,000 each,” he said.
“The compensation package is nearly 150 percent higher than the existing land rates,” Jamal Uddin claimed.
He said that the genuine affected villagers would be benefited over the compensation package.
Besides, the authorities have also compensated the affected for their trees, cattle and crops.
State
Minister for Land Mostafizur Rahman will distribute the compensation
package while members of the parliamentary standing committee on power
and energy ministry, state minister for labour Munnujan Sufian and
senior officials of energy and mineral resources ministry will be
present at the function.
In November 8, 2010, the Executive
Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved over Tk 1.9
billion compensation package under the resettlement framework for 580
affected families in Barapukuria coalmine areas.
But recently, the number of affected families reduced to 515 after a comprehensive survey on affected families.
The
government decided to acquire 30 acres of land at Dulawora village in
Hamidpur Union Parisad in Barapukuria coalmine area under Dinajpur
District to rehabilitate 317 landless families who have become landless.
The
government has planned to conduct a demonstration project for open-pit
mining in Barapukuria after resettlement of the affected people.
It
also has a plan to produce 10 million tonnes of coal annually against
the present levels of production of below one million tonnes to generate
around 11,250 MW of electricity from domestic coal.
