Calcutta High Court seeks response from Bengal government over Deocha Pachami coal project
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court has sought a response from the State Government and the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited (WBPDCL) regarding the Deocha Pachami Dewanganj Harisingha (DPDH) coal mining project on Thursday (April 24, 2025).
Hearing a petition by economist and activist Prasenjit Bose, the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee directed respondents, including the Government of West Bengal and the WBPDCL, to file affidavits within three weeks, and a reply, if any, within a week thereafter.
WBPDCL, the executing agency, is currently in the process of excavating the 80 metres to 250 metres thick basalt layer over the DPDH coal block in West Bengal's Birbhum. Following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's announcement at the Bengal Global Business Summit, basalt mining work started at the DPDH coal block on February 6 this year, amidst resistance from local villagers.
In his petition, petitioner Mr Bose alleged that the respondents, including the West Bengal government and the WBPDCL, have 'reneged on their legal and contractual obligations' and have 'pursued a confounding trajectory of basalt mining in an area allotted for a coal block.'
'A government notification concerning the coal project issued in November 2021 describes the entire project in a certain manner. After the Chief Minister's announcement in February this year, officials connected to this project have made several statements about the project plan in the media, which do not tally with the initial notification,' Mr. Bose told The Hindu.
He added that no official notification has been issued as on date, either for the local population at DPDH or the public at large, specifying the current nature of the mining activities or the environmental and other official clearances obtained.
'There is no information on this coal mining project in the public domain. The people are completely in the dark over what is happening at the DPDH area. There has been no public hearing with the residents whose lands are being acquired for this project. While many have agreed to sell their land in exchange for compensation and jobs, a large section of people have not consented,' Mr. Bose said.
'The question is why a power development corporation is undertaking the work to mine basalt after entering into agreements with the Central government on account of the coal deposits. Basalt mining is a separate project, and that work should be in concurrence with the prior agreement,' he added.
During the hearing, Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam cited a past judgment in the Madras High Court in connection with the Salem Highway Project. 'There are a couple of decisions which say whether post-facto environment clearance can be granted or if it should be prior,' he observed during the hearing on Thursday (April 24, 2025).
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The Print
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- The Print
India forgot revolutionary Rash Behari Bose. Abhishek Banerjee brought him back into focus
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Urging officials of the Indian High Commission in Tokyo to take steps for the restoration of the memorial, Banerjee brought focus back on a legendary revolutionary who the India outside West Bengal has long forgotten. What no one asked, however, is why Bose has been relegated to the footnotes of India's history. He was a key organiser of the Ghadar Revolution and founded the Indian Independence League – a political organisation that operated between the 1920s and 1940s to mobilise Indians outside the country against British rule. Moreover, Rash Behari Bose didn't just lead the attack on Viceroy Hardinge; he also led the Indian National Army before Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took over its reins. It was, perhaps, inconvenient to talk about Bose or recount his achievements in Independent India, given his close associations with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the Hindu Mahasabha. Revolutionaries' revolutionary Sanjeev Sanyal, author of Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom, recalled in a talk his primary motivation behind writing the book: the sense that the story of India's independence struggle was incomplete. 'This whole idea that we politely requested the British to leave and they gently left doesn't quite add up,' he said. According to Sanyal, the armed revolutionary movement in India didn't just comprise random acts of violence; coordinated effort tied generations of revolutionaries from the late 19th century till 1946. In his book, Sanyal writes that the first generation of revolutionaries was led by Aurobindo Ghosh — who later came to be known as Sri Aurobindo — and VD Savarkar. Just as the first wave of armed revolution was quashed by the British — through hangings and incarcerations at the Cellular (Kaala Pani) Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — a second wave, led by Rash Behari Bose, emerged. 'One of the disciples of Sri Aurobindo, Rash Behari Bose, created a new network of revolutionaries along with my grand uncle, Sachindranath Sanyal. After the attack on Lord Hardinge, Bose went back to Dehradun, where he was working at that time and organised an event where he condemned the attack in the harshest terms. So pleased were the British that six months later, when Hardinge was released from hospital, Rash Behari Bose was made the leader of the welcoming committee,' Sanyal said in his 2023 talk. Prasun Roy, author of a biography titled A Samurai Dream of Azad Hind: Rash Behari Bose, said that he was no ordinary freedom fighter. Speaking to me over the phone, Roy said: 'He (Bose) knew a time would come when Japan and Southeast Asia would support the struggle for Indian independence. His vision gave birth to the Indian National Army, but he had no ego in welcoming Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to lead it. Rash Behari Bose was a global Indian who created the blueprint for India's independence.' But Roy has one grouse: 'India has forgotten Rash Behari Bose…Abhishek Banerjee paying tribute to Bose is commendable, but political parties should not use him to poke each other. Instead, a gallantry award should be named after him, and something should be done in the national capital so that India remembers him for who he was.' Also read: The Indian freedom fighter Japan remembers as its beloved chef The 'othered' Bose According to author Amrita Mukherjee, Rash Behari Bose has been forgotten even in his native Bengal. Not many Bengalis today know about his contribution to the Independence struggle, she told me. 'He was a relentless revolutionary who did not leave any stone unturned to fight for his motherland,' she said, adding that, while there is little about Bose in history books, Prasun Roy's in-depth research and writing style does justice to his life story. 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