The Bengal cabinet on Monday approved a proposal to hand over 30 acres of vested land to the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) after the central agency proposed to expand six coal mines in the Asansol industrial belt.

The alacrity of the state government in approving the proposal can be linked to its desperation to create jobs in the state to handle the discontent among youths due to joblessness in Bengal.

“The ECL had sought land from the state government for extracting coal from six new areas located in Asansol, Raniganj and Pandaveswar areas. The state cabinet today agreed to hand over 30 acres of vested land to the ECL for this purpose,” said Moloy Ghatak, state labour minister and also an MLA from Asansol (North).

The minister elaborated that the state government agreed to hand over 15.51 acres of land in Pandeveswar, 2.52 acres of land in Asansol Municipal Corporation area and 2.81 acres of land in Dhamuria.

Besides, the state will also transfer 6.39 acres of land in Raniganj area, 0.81 acres of land in Pandaveswar and 1.95 acres of land in Bhanora.

The minister said that the state government agreed to hand over the plots to the ECL as it is expected the initiative to extract coal from new areas will give a boost to the local economy.

“Earlier, a total of 1.30 lakh people used to work in the coal mines in the area. But gradually the ECL closed down several mines leading to loss of employment opportunities and rise in illegal mining from the abandoned coal fields. The new initiative can generate a few thousand jobs as each of the new areas of mining can generate 500-2,000 employment opportunities,” said Ghatak.

Joblessness, a state wide problem, has been acute in Asansol industrial belt as several central public sector industrial units got closed in the last few

The list of closed units is a long one which includes Hindustan Cables Limited, Mining Allied and Machineries Corporation, Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Ltd, Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Ltd, Cycle Corporation of India, Pilkington Glass, British Oxygen, Reckitt & Coleman, Kulti Sponge Pipe Factory.

Similarly, state government units such as Durgapur Projects Limited are also struggling resulting in regular lay offs.

Against this background, the ECL proposal comes as a good news, said a source.

“The initiative by the ECL will definitely generate some jobs. So, the state government came forward to ensure that no allegations of non-cooperation could be levelled against it,” said a bureaucrat.