Around 3,000 tribal people on Monday took out a rally demanding suspension of any activity at the proposed coal mine project in Deocha Pachami in Birbhum till the majority of people in the project affected area agreed to voluntarily part with their plots.

The protesters said that they have also sent a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee urging her to consider the views of the villagers before launching any activity at the site.

“The chief minister had announced from her July 21 rally that the work of the coal mine had started. A large section of local people haven't yet given their consent and there is also a legal challenge to the project. So it's unfair to claim that work has begun," said a member of the platform that has been protesting against the coal mine since February this year.

Around 3,000 tribal people from different villages of the coal mine project area on Monday gathered at ground in Suri and took out a protest rally to the office of the district magistrate, Bidhan Ray, and met him to hand over the letter to the chief minister.

"We wrote to the chief minister that 70-80 percent of the local people are not ready to part with their land for the project.." he added.

According to the leader, villagers in at least eight villages are completely against the project.

“It would not be possible for the government to start mining if they don’t get consensus from most of the villages. We want a white paper from the government that they would not use force if a majority of a village opposes the project,” said a leader of the platform, before adding that they expect the chief minister to deliver on the promise,

On April 13, a team of the protestors from the project area met the chief minister and placed their demands at state secretariat Nabanna. They said that most of the demands like withdrawing criminal cases against a section of activists and local people, stern action against those cops who had earlier tortured the women when they had protested.

Meanwhile a public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed at the Calcutta High court by activist and economist Prasenjit Bose. The PIL claimed that the state government was violating the right to fair compensation and transparency as mentioned in the 2013 land acquisition and resettlement act.

Recently, the state government had started exploratory drilling in two villages and claimed that layers of coal were detected. The district officials had claimed that the work was started after they got consent from the majority of local people in writing.

“We are taking consents from each village before starting the drilling work. We have already taken consent from the majority of the villagers in writing from two villages where we had started the exploratory drilling,” said an official.