RANCHI: At least five people, including four women, died and over a dozen others still feared to be buried inside the over burden (OB) dump, which collapsed while the locals were picking up coal in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad.
The incident took place at the operational open cast mine of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) at Gopinathpur in Dhanbad.
According to the district administration, the dead bodies of four women and a man has already been recovered from the OB dump. “We have recovered five dead bodies from here while the search of others, who are feared buried in the OB dump, is still on,” said Sub-Divisional Officer Prem Shankar Tiwari. He, however, refused to share any further details in this regard.
Later, an official communiqué from Dhanbad Police revealed that the picking of coal by the villagers living in the periphery of the mine area is done near the OB dump on regular basis, during which, the dump collapsed burying the men and women under it. In order to get into the details of the matter and avoid any such incident in future, demand for Mine Safety Audit Report has been made from the Directorate of Mines Safety (DGMS) in Dhanbad, it said.
Meanwhile, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed under SP (Rural) to get into the details of the matter.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren expressed anguish over the incident saying that the district administration is actively engaged in rescue and relief work. “Some casualties have been reported from the coal mine located in Nirsa, Dhanbad. The district administration is actively engaged in rescue and relief work. May God grant peace to the departed souls and give strength to the family to bear this difficult time of grief. Help is being provided to the injured,” Soren said through his tweeter handle.