Work in progress at the mine site on Thursday; The Telegraph report on the BCCL decision on Tuesday. (Gour Sharma)

Asansol, Dec. 13: Villagers whose land agitation had forced Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) to scrap a mining project near Asansol apologised to company officials last evening with folded hands and requested them to reconsider the decision.

This is the first time in recent memory that land protesters in Bengal have apologised for their agitation. It is also a pointer to the lack of jobs, which prompted the residents to organise the agitation and later apologise.

A senior official of BCCL, a Coal India subsidiary, today said the company had decided to scrap its earlier decision to look for options in Jharkhand and dig the mine in Damagoria.

The Telegraph had on Tuesday reported BCCL’s decision to move out following villagers’ agitation on December 5. The villagers squatted on the plots identified for acquisition and stopped a land survey demanding that BCCL give them jobs immediately.

BCCL had said jobs of 70 people had already been finalised but it would require at least a couple of months to issue appointment letters. About 200 acres, belonging to 150 families in Damagoria, were identified by BCCL for the open-cast mine.

Yesterday, the villagers held a meeting and discussed the impact of the pullout decision as many of them had already been identified for the jobs and compensation.

“We made a mistake by hampering the work of the coal company as we had thought it would cheat us by not giving us jobs after setting up the mine on our plots. But we do not want the project to be shifted from here because it would permanently kill our hope to get money and jobs. Our land is almost barren. So if we get jobs in BCCL, it would be better for us,” said Biplab Mandal, one of the agitators.

Tarasish Mandal, the general manager of the Church Victoria area of BCCL in Barakar, said the company had received a written apology from the villagers.

“I spoke to our chairman-cum-managing director, Tapas Kumar Lahiri. He was pleased with the development and instructed me to scrap the previous decision and resume work,” Tarasish Mandal said.

“We have also assured the villagers that there will be no breach of trust from our side.” A BCCL official termed the villagers’ move a good sign. “What happened yesterday is a good sign. It shows that the villagers have become sensible. This will set a good example,” he said.