Demo in London to save Phulbari

Bangladeshi expatriates and several environmental groups in England have demonstrated in London protesting the open-pit coal mine project in Phulbari of Dinajpur district.

Different organisations, including London unit of National Committee to Protect Oil Gas and Mineral Resources in Bangladesh, staged the agitation while Global Coal Resources Management (GCM), previously known as Asia Energy, was holding its annual meeting yesterday in Central London.

Protesters alleged that GCM called the meeting to discuss its plan to implement a massive open-pit coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari, reports our London correspondent.

Bangladesh government had cancelled all contracts with GCM nine years ago suspending its operation from open-pit coal mine project in Phulbari following a deadly protest by the locals in 2006 that killed three people and injured dozens.

The government has recently reassured protestors that it does not want to build an open-pit mine in Phulbari.

Phulbari Solidarity Group, Socialist Party of Bangladesh (SPB) and some environmental groups in London were co-organiser of yesterday’s protest programme.

One of the organisers, Rumana Hashem said the London based company has been pushing the government of Bangladesh for a fatal deal. “We advise GCM to close business now.”

The protesters said if the mine is built, it would destroy 14,600 hectares of cultivable land in northwest Bangladesh.

“It would also pose threats to clean water resources and would leave devastative impact on one of the world's largest mangrove forests and UNESCO heritage site, the Sundarbans,” they observed.