Nearly 1,000 tribal people held a meeting on Saturday evening and vowed to stop government officials from “digging an inch” of soil for the Deocha-Pachami coal mine before their demands for proper compensation and jobs were met.

The meeting was held under the aegis of the Birbhum Adivasi Gaonta at Sagarbandhi near Mohammedbazar. Sagarbandhi falls under the site of the state-run project, for which plots of the Gaonta tribe need to be acquired.

“We need to know that our lives will go on after the project comes up. We want the compensation packages that we demanded and employment assurances,” said a protester.

Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha accompanied by two senior Nabanna officials had landed in Deocha on July 9 and held a meeting with stakeholders and landowners expressing a desire to start the work soon. Sources had said the state government was likely to kick off the coal mine’s operations early next year.

“In the meeting on July 9, the government did not clear our doubts about the compensation. So, villagers still have questions as to whether they would get jobs in the coalfields after being removed from their homeland. We would not allow any work to start here till these doubts are cleared,” said Rabin Soren, secretary of the Gaonta, who was present in the meeting with the chief secretary.

“There are many landless people who live on others’ plots or waste land. The government needs to think about them also,” added Soren.