BIHAR: Two mining mishaps in Jharkhand in the past 24 hours have raised questions about maintenance of mandatory safety standards. The bodies of ten miners were extracted on Friday from under the debris at a coal mine that collapsed in the state's northern Godda district.
Rescue operations continue to save nearly 20 others believed to be trapped.
When workers and machinery were engaged in mining operations some 200 feet beneathB the ground at the Pahadia Bhodaye site in Rajmahal Opencast Project of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, a large heap of top ground caved in and blocked the entry point of the colliery, said officials. The incident took place at about 8 pm on Thursday. Although the cause of the mishap is yet to be confirmed, the Ministry of Coal described the mishap as “unprecedented” and said it prima facie appeared to have resulted from “a
failure of the bench edge along the hidden fault line/slip”.
Four of the dead workers were from Bihar, three from Jharkhand and one each from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, said sources. Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das announced ex-gratia of Rs2 lakh to the next of kin of each dead worker while ECL announced an ex-gratia of Rs5 lakh for each death. PM Narendra Modi and coal
minister Piyush Goyal expressed grief over the deaths.
“Rescue work is being carried out by NDRF personnel. We will take steps to ensure no recurrence of such mishaps,” said Jharkhand chief secretary Rajvala Verma after visiting the mishap site on Friday.
While the Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS) has been asked to probe the causes of the mishap, local people and
Opposition political parties accused ECL and the executing agency, Mahalaxmi Company, of compromising safety standards to
save costs.
ECL sources said that the mishap took place as the workers were forced to continue mining operation even after their
team leader had warned about the likelihood of collapse due to continued extraction of coal at the 12-year-old colliery.
The second mishap was reported in Putki Balihari area in Dhanbad district on Friday, in which four workers were injured, two of them seriously. The roof of the coalmine of Bharat Coking Coal
Limited (BCCL), also a subsidiary of CCL, partially collapsed.