NDRF official says water inside mine is over 70 feet and divers can’t do much unless level comes down. State human rights commission orders inquiry.
New Delhi: Officials in Meghalaya say they are still waiting for bigger pumps to arrive, two weeks after 15 miners got trapped inside an illegal rat-hole mine in the state’s East Jaintia Hills district.
Santosh Kumar Singh, assistant commandant of the 1st Battalion of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) who is heading the rescue operation at the accident site, said there is not much that his men can do at the moment.
“The water inside the coal mine continues to be over 70 feet. There is no improvement. Our divers can’t do much unless the water level goes down,” Singh told ThePrint from Ksan.
On Wednesday, the Meghalaya government sought assistance from Coal India to provide high-powered submersible pumps to take out water from the 370-feet deep pit and provide assistance for survey.
The NDRF team is now waiting for the pumps to reach the site before resuming the rescue operation.
A senior East Jaintia Hills district official said the problem has been compounded by the fact that most of the senior state government officials are on leave for Christmas and New Year.
“There is hardly anybody to take quick decision,” said the official who did not wish to be named.
Earlier, the Meghalaya Human Rights Commission ordered an inquiry into the accident. The Meghalaya government will have to submit its report to MHRC by 18 January.
“We have taken suo-moto cognisance of the incident and ordered an inquiry. We have also ordered the state government to provide us details of measures taken so far to rescue the miners and compensation that has been provided,” Aldous Mawlong, secretary, Meghalaya Human Rights Commission (MHRC) told ThePrint from Shillong.
Also read: No one is bothered because we are poor, say families of trapped Meghalaya miners
‘Water level still over 70 feet’
For the last two days, the NDRF team has stopped usage of two pumps that were employed to take out water due to their ineffectiveness.
“We have stopped the two pumps that were put inside the coal pit to pump out water as they were ineffective. Even after the machines pumped out water, there was only a marginal reduction in the water level. It was pointless,” said Singh.
The two pumps have a capacity to take out 600 litres of water per minute.
Mining experts from Guwahati’s Directorate General of Mines Safety, who visited the spot for the survey, had told the NDRF in a report that they needed pumps over three times as powerful, which can pull out 500 gallons or nearly 1,900 litres a minute.
Sylvester Nongtnger, superintendent of police, East Jaintia Hills, said the NDRF team has not managed to retrieve anyone from the coal pit till Thursday.
Asked how many miners are trapped inside the illegal rat-hole mine, Nongtnger said, “As per records available with us there are 15 miners inside. We are yet to arrest the manager of the coal mine who is absconding.”
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