In yet another tragic incident, six persons from Assam are trapped in a coal mine in East Jaintia Hills District in Meghalaya.
Meghalaya police took to Twitter to inform the public of the situation.
The tweet added that the mine has been identified at Sutunga interior, under Umplemg AD camp and search operations are underway.
According to Meghalaya police, the Superintendent of East Jaintia Hills and IG (L&O) are at the suspected PO.
Cachar SP Vaibhav C Nimbalkar said they are yet to receive any conclusive details on the accident, adding that they are depending on the Meghalaya police and working along with them to identify the reports of trapped mines being from Assam.
“We can only comment on that after Meghalaya Police verifies the reports. We are dependent on them, so far no conclusive details,” said the SP.
However, according to a report in The Hindu, “the police in southern Assam’s Cachar district were on Monday tipped off by one Karimul Bari, who said one of his neighbours died in the coal mine accident in Meghalaya two days ago. The bodies of five-seven labourers were buried 500 feet down the mine shaft, he added.”
The Hindu report added that the miners are likely to be dead.
Rathole mining was banned as early as 2014 by the National Green Tribunal, but mining continues unabated in the state. In 2018, at least 17 miners, mostly from Assam, were killed. Similarly, in January this year, six workers in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia hills district were killed in a crane accident while working at an abandoned coal mine site.
This is a developing story…
