New Delhi | With the rescue operation for 15 miners trapped inside a 370-foot illegal coal mine in Lumthari area of Meghalaya entered the 14th day today, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save the miners trapped inside the flooded coal mine since December 13.
Criticising the Prime Minister for the delay in the rescue operation, Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “15 miners have been struggling for air in a flooded coal mine for two weeks. Meanwhile, PM struts about on Bogibeel Bridge posing for cameras. His government refuses to organise high pressure pumps for the rescue. PM please save the miners.”
15 miners have been struggling for air in a flooded coal mine for two weeks.
Meanwhile, PM struts about on Bogibeel Bridge posing for cameras.
His government refuses to organise high pressure pumps for the rescue.
PM please save the miners. https://t.co/STZS62vTp4
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 26, 2018
On December 13, around 20 miners entered the 370-foot mine at about 8 am. After reaching the bottom of the pit, the miners entered the horizontal manholes, often termed as ‘rat-holes’. According to villagers, one of the diggers could have accidentally punctured the walls of the cave and the river water gushed in immediately, trapping the miners inside. Luckily only five persons managed to climb out of the mine. Operations to rescue the trapped miners entered its 14th day on December 26 as over a 100 personnel from the NDRF and the SDRF are at the site, alongside the state police.
Earlier Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had asked the Coal India limited to provide high power submersible pump to save the miners. Sangma said the state government has written to the Coal India seeking their special pumps (high-power submersible pumps) to aid the rescue of these 15 miners.
The Meghalaya government had also sought the Union Home Ministry’s help to rescue the trapped miners. The NDRF teams, which are involved in the rescue operation, had earlier suggested the district administration to ask the ONGC to deploy submersible water pumps to reduce the water level. But nothing has been done yet.
Speaking on the incident the local authority has said that as of now, two pumps have been working in tandem, but “there was little impact on the water level since the water from the nearby river has got into the mine. They further added that efforts over the past nine days have failed to produce the desired results and the rescue workers are now hoping for a miracle to see the trapped miners alive. Interestingly, in 2014 the National Green Tribunal had imposed a ban in Meghalaya on rat-hole coal mining, a technique that entails digging small vertical pits to reach the mineral pockets.
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