Even though the Centre has decided to shut down 64 Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) mines based in West Bengal, the new Union Minister for Coal and Mines, Mamata Banerjee, feels there is still hope.On her arrival at the airport here today, she announced that no mine of the ECL — a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd (CIL) — will be shut down. Mamata who was sworn in as a Union Minister in September last year was allotted the coal portfolio yesterday. ‘‘There is no question of shutting down any coal mines. However, I took charge of the Ministry just yesterday and have not yet been able to read the relevant files,’’ she said.Mamata also said she would visit the CIL headquarters and talk to officials and union leaders to take stock of the situation. ‘‘I will sit in a meeting with officials and leaders of the unions of the two undertakings tomorrow to work out a revival formula.’’‘‘I will try for the revival of both the undertakings and initiate efforts to overcome whatever shortcomings there are so that the mines can turn around,’’ she said and declined to comment on the miners’ proposed strike next month.The Centre had decided to shut down 64 ECL mines as they were not “economically viable”. And Mamata at the very outset was not very keen on accepting this portfolio because she did not want to be looked upon as the culprit of depriving 35,000 workers of these coal mines of their jobs in an election year.Mamata also said she would oppose the shifting of CIL headquarters from Kolkata. ‘‘I know this rumour is doing the rounds but I will not accept this at any cost,’’ she said. A large number of trinamool Congress leaders and activists thronged the airport to greet her on her return to the city from Delhi. Banerjee, however, asked the partymen not to raise slogans in her favour. ‘‘Please don’t raise slogans this way here,’’ she snubbed her partymen.
