Over 600 tribal people, including women from at least half a dozen villages in Birbhum’s Deocha-Pachami, a few political leaders and lawyers held a meeting at Dewanganj village on Saturday against the proposed coal mine, the first organised event against chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s dream project.

The venue, Dewanganj village of Mohammedbazar block, is significant as work on the coal mine is supposed to begin from here.

Apart from CPM Rajya Sabha member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and Congress leader Abdul Mannan, the meeting was marked by the presence of some Calcutta High Court lawyers who promised legal help to villagers in case the “state government used force against protesters”.

“Earlier murmurs against the coal mine were mostly restricted to local residents. This is the first time the local people, who are against the coal mine, have come forward in an organised manner. Organisers distributed leaflets among villagers in 12-odd tribal hamlets and urged them to come to the meeting. Tribal people want Bengal’s intellectuals to raise their voice against the project,” said a leader of Deocha-Pachami Adivasi Janajati Bhumiraksha Committee, organiser of Saturday’s meeting.

Bhattacharyya, Mannan and legal experts and social activists from Calcutta attended the meeting on behalf of Save Democracy Forum.

“A large number of local people came here and expressed their views against setting up the coal mine. The government is planning to set up a coal mine at a time the world is fighting against fossil fuel. There is nothing to discuss on the compensation package as people should not be evicted from their homeland,” said Bhattacharyya, who also slammed the Narendra Modi government as “the coal mine has been given to the state government but is under control of the central government”.

Trinamul’s Birbhum chief Anubrata Mondal said people of Deocha-Panchami were in support of the coal mine project. He said the Congress and the CPM had “become zero” as the Assembly polls proved.

"On Saturday, a few leaders from Calcutta tried to provoke the tribal people by bringing in outsiders. The people of the coal mine area are with the state government,” said Anubrata Mondal, the Birbhum Trinamul chief.

Mamata on November 9 announced a rehabilitation package that promises, among a slew of offers, a government job for one person from each land-loser’s family. The state government wants to start the coal mine as soon as possible.

“We identified 16 points on government land near Dewanganj where the WBPDCL (West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited), the implementing agency, will start primary work. But the government is very clear that everything will happen after talks with local people,” said a source in district administration.