Kolkata: With the central government setting up cancer centres in coal mining areas, union Coal and Power Minister, Piyush Goyal on Friday, sought assistance of the Tata Medical Center (TMC) in establishing the medical facilities.

"I invite and request Mammen Chandy (TMC Kolkata director) and other colleagues, trustees of the hospital to consider helping us in setting up these centres. I invite Chandy to partner with Coal India Limited to help set up these centres," Goyal said here.

The minister inaugurated 'Premashraya' — a residential facility for underprivileged cancer patients at TMC here.

Goyal said the centres will come up in Jharkhand, Chhattishgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra and will be subsequently extended to the western parts of the country.

"Certainly, we are not doing any help to the people living in the mining areas… we can at least make sure we don't allow them to suffer the consequences of large scale mining in these areas," he said.

The minister also proposed the use of mobile mammography units for breast cancer screening in the mining areas. (IANS)