Kolkata: At least seven people were feared killed when an ECL’s opencast mine caved in during pilferage at Raniganj in West Burdwan district, known as Bengal’s coal-belt. Local police confirmed that they recovered three bodies.
Alleging seven persons were buried alive when portion of the opencast caved in, BJP MLA from Asansol (south) Agnimitra Paul said pilferage of coal is random in the area and the authorities do not try to protect people from unauthorised mining leading to such accidents and causing to death of poor people.
“It was local people who first started search operation in the opencast mine. The district administration arrived much late and by then those who were buried died,” said Agnimitra, who rushed to the spot early on Thursday.
Accusing district’s administration’s inactiveness, BJP supporters staged demonstrations and put up a roadblock on the National Highway-6.
According to police, the ECL outsourced an agency for extracting coal from the mine. It was not confirmed whether the mine was abandoned or it was operational for mining.
“Several persons were killed in past few years as locals got engaged in coal pilferage from abandoned opencast mines and trapped when it caved in.
“Filling up abandoned mines with sand is normal practice. But the opencast mine where the incident took place was not filled up. We are collecting information about the present status of the mine,” said a police officer.