Meghalaya coal mine tragedy: SC allows state govt to call off rescue ops

The Supreme Court has asked the Meghalaya government to stop rescue operations at the coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills. At least 15 miners were trapped in December

The Supreme Court has asked the Meghalaya government to stop rescue operations at the coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills. At least 15 miners were trapped in December last year.

The state government is estimated to have spent over Rs 3.5 crore since December 13, 2018 till May 2019 on the operations at the tragedy-hit mine.

Weeks of multi-agency rescue operations had failed to yield the desired results with only two bodies recovered so far. Subsequently the Meghalaya government moved the Supreme Court to allow it to call of the rescue operations which were apparently rendered futile.

After close to 8 months of operations, the Supreme Court has allowed the calling off, of the rescue operations in Ksan.

It may be mentioned that the Meghalaya government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the families of the victims have given their consent to call off the rescue operations.

Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that they have been informed about the decision and the state government will accordingly call a meeting based on the clearance given by the Supreme Court and will be deciding on that line. He however said that the order has not come out officially and based on that order a decision would be made.

Almost seven months since the tragedy struck on Dec 13, the ongoing rescue operations despite the involvement of multiple agencies have failed to yield the desired result.

So far only two bodies of the miners have been retrieved from the coal mine and while the Odisha fire service team and navy divers were called off, the Kirloskar brothers, Coal India Limited, the SDRF and NDRF are still deployed at the site of the operations who are carrying out the dewatering process until recently when the operation had to be temporarily suspended due to heavy rain and flooding.

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