Centre, Meghalaya won’t stop mine op

New Delhi, January 21

Thirtynine days after 15 miners got trapped in an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya, the Centre and the state government told the Supreme Court on Monday that they were not abandoning the operation to rescue the miners.

The rescue operations had not been abandoned, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a Bench headed by Justice AK Sikri, which is seized of a PIL filed by Aditya N Prasad seeking a direction to the Centre and Meghalaya government to rescue the trapped miners and put in place a standard operating procedure for rescue operations during such cases.

Mehta’s statement came after senior counsel Anand Grover, representing the petitioner, alleged that rescue operation had been abandoned and members of the NDRF, Navy and other organisations involved in it were waiting for the court’s nod to call it off.

Mehta, however, said a body found in the inundated mine was unrecognisable due to decay. It was extremely difficult to bring out the body without “disintegrating” body parts damaged due to the high sulphur content in the mine. He also ruled out deploying a camera in the mine.

Meghalaya filed a status report on the operation. Its advocate said a body had been located at the depth of 210 ft in jeans and shirt, but was decomposed. He said bodies of other trapped miners could also be in the same state which was why it was difficult for the rescue team to bring them out. A medical team has advised them against pulling the body as it may cause complete disintegration, he said. The Bench will take up the matter on Monday. — TNS