The Mamata Banerjee government on Friday set a three-month deadline to purchase 48 acres of land to form a contiguous 376-acre stretch, which is essential to begin mining in the first phase of the proposed Deocha-Pachami coal mine project in Birbhum district.

Chief secretary Manoj Pant, who rushed to Birbhum on Friday morning, accompanied by DGP Rajeev Kumar and several senior officials from Calcutta, unequivocally told the local administration that the government would not tolerate any lackadaisical attitude towards the coal mine, which is a potential source of 1.2 billion tonnes of coal.

The officials reached the project site following the instructions of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

During her administrative meeting on Thursday, Mamata reprimanded Birbhum district magistrate Bidhan Ray regarding the progress of work on the proposed coal mine project, questioning why scattered plots had been purchased, instead of contiguous land. "Why was the land not purchased contiguously? I am sending CS (Pant) and DG (Kumar) tomorrow (Friday) there (Birbhum)," Mamata said.

The state government has already engaged an agency to remove basalt — the hard, dark rock — from 376 acres where the mining will be undertaken in the first phase.

After a meeting of around 90 minutes at the conference hall of the Mohammad Bazar block office in Birbhum district on Friday, Pant said mining work would begin only when the additional 48 acres of land were purchased.

"Today, we held a meeting to proceed with the Deocha-Pachami coal mine project with a better focus. The work of removing the overburden of black stone will start within 15-20 days. We currently have 326 acres of land (out of the 376 acres in the first phase). Meanwhile, we will purchase around 40 more acres of land, and further work (mining) will be done," said the chief secretary.

Although Pant did not mention the deadline, a senior state government official present at the meeting confirmed that the local administration had been directed to complete the task within three months.

Apart from the chief secretary and DGP, WBPDCL managing director P.B. Salim and several other officials and political leaders, including Rajya Sabha member Samirul Islam and Birbhum zilla parishad chief Sheikh Kajal, were present at the meeting.

Pant said in addition to open-cast mining, the government had initiated a process to start underground mining. The bidding process has already begun and is expected to be finalised by the first week of February.

A source has said Mamata's concern about the lack of contiguity in the purchased plots is significant as she knows that starting the mining could face challenges if there are private land pockets in the 376-acre stretch. "The process of purchasing land was not conducted properly, as there were many unwilling landowners who did not agree to sell their plots for the project. The local administration then purchased land in a scattered manner, prioritising willing landowners. Now, that policy has become a threat to starting the project," said a senior official.

Pant, however, claimed that the lack of contiguity was not an issue, as the government procured land in a scattered manner in different pockets to start the drilling process to assess the availability and quality of coal.

A Trinamool Congress leader said the local administration had procured plots haphazardly in the areas earmarked for the first and second phases of the project, without ensuring adequate land for the first phase.

"There will be at least 150 landowners in that 48-acre stretch of land, which the government has failed to acquire. Now, convincing these people to part with their plots with an offer of jobs and compensation is easier said than done," the leader added.

After the administrative meeting, Pant and Kumar met local tribal leaders. The tribal leaders presented a set of demands to the top state government officials and informed them of certain issues.

"A family has three or four sons who live separately. Since the government has been offering only one job per family, it is creating problems on the ground. We have requested the chief secretary to resolve the issue. The chief secretary said such issues will be addressed once the project begins," said Rabin Soren, the president of Disham Adivasi Gaonta.

The tribal leaders also demanded the formation of a Deocha-Pachami Development Board to extend civic services to the landowners involved in the project.

An official said the issue highlighted by the tribal leader was also a concern, especially since the government had set a three-month deadline to buy the additional land.

MP Samirul Islam said: "As our chief minister Mamata Banerjee is overseeing the project, we expect there will be no issues starting mining in Deocha-Pachami soon."

Less than two hours after Pant and Kumar left Mohammedbazar, a group of landowners from the coalmine project area staged a protest, claiming a section of local officials had been trying to malign the government by purchasing land haphazardly.

"We wrote to the district magistrate about the haphazard purchasing of land and the chief minister has herself pointed out the same issue. We all want the coal mine to be set up here, but a section of officials is trying to malign the government," said a resident.