The national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports is planning a greater movement against the government's plan for open-pit mining at Phulbari and Barapukuria in Dinajpur.
The parliamentary standing committee on power and energy is advocating the open-pit method for Barapukuria and Phulbari coal mines and the government has announced a package for the people living around the Barapukuria coal mine for land acquisition.
The Dinajpur district unit of the national committee has announced a road and railway blockade on March 28 in six upazilas.
The blockade will take place at Phulbari, Birampur, Nababganj, Parbatipur, Hakimpur and Ghoraghat between 6:00am and 12 noon. Leaders of the central committee will join the programme, committee sources said.
The national committee will also go on countrywide demonstrations on the day and will hold a rally in Dhaka.
The people are opposing the land acquisition and open-pit method and holding programmes to resist the package.
The national committee had already held rallies in divisional headquarters expect Rangpur and will hold a rally in Dhaka on April 6.
The committee will hold a rally in Dhaka in September with the slogan 'Chalo Chalo, Dhaka Chalo' where the committee leaders and activists from across the country will gather to push for its seven-point demands, including stopping gas and coal extraction by international oil companies and cancellation of gas and coal export.
Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the national committee, told New Age that the government was planning coal extraction at Phulbari and Barapukuria in the open-pit method which would cause huge loss of land and harm the environment. 'We will never allow the open-pit method for coal extraction.'
'We will wage a greater movement if the government does not refrain from leasing out natural resources under unequal production and sharing contracts,' he said.
Read the original story on the daily New Age
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