Rain and slushy conditions have delayed the rescue operation at a coal mine in Meghalaya, where a dynamite blast led to the flooding of a pit trapping five labourers more than 500 ft below.
The incident happened on Sunday, but the Meghalaya police got wind of it only on Monday through their counterparts in southern Assam’s Cachar district after a tip-off from the neighbour of one of the labourers feared dead in the mine in the Sutnga area of East Jaintia Hills district.
Four of the trapped labourers – two unidentified – are from Assam and one is from Tripura.
“We have requisitioned a crane the miners were using for the rescue personnel to descend into the pit. We have also placed pumps to drain out the water from the mine, but the weather is playing spoilsport,” said the district’s Deputy Commissioner E. Kharmalki.
He said about 30-35 police and State Disaster Response Force personnel were at the site. “We may have to seek the help of the National Disaster Response Force,” he added.
The district police said Nizam Ali, the ‘sordar’ (manager of labourers) of the mine remained elusive as did a few other labourers. Ali could lead the police to the owner of the mine or group of miners involved in illegal rat-hole coal mining despite a ban by the National Green Tribunal since April 2014.
“We can get information from the sordar and K. Chyrmang, the former owner of the mine who was detained by the police but had tested positive before he could be interrogated,” the State’s Home Minister, Lakhmen Rymbui told The Hindu.
“The mine was abandoned. We don’t know if he still owns it or sold it to someone,” he said, admitting it was difficult for the government to keep tabs on “thousands of mines,” many in the interiors and away from public gaze.
The State government headed by the National People’s Party has, meanwhile, come under attack from both its coalition partners and the opposition Congress.
“The government has to take a serious note of the mishaps that have put a question mark on its intentions,” said Jemino Mawthoh, the general secretary of the United Democratic Party.
“The people need to know who profits from this [illegal mining] and how the labourers managed to come to Meghalaya despite the COVID-19 restrictions,” former Minister and Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh said.
