Day 40: Won't abandon operations for rescue of trapped Meghalaya miners
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Monday said the government has not yet decided to call off the operations to rescue 15 miners trapped inside a 370 feet deep coal mine for more than a month in East Jaintia Hills district.
By : migrator
Update: 2019-01-21 19:44 GMT
Jaintia Hills
Since December 13, 2018, 15 miners have been trapped inside a 370 feet flooded coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district.
Hearing a PIL filed by Delhi-based lawyer Aditya N. Prasad against the Centre for failing to rescue the miners, a Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices A.K. Sikri and S. Abdul Nazeer on Monday expressed concern over the progress of the rescue operation.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the court that there was no question of abandoning the rescue operation.
"We have not abandoned the rescue operation", Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer after senior counsel Anand Grover asserted that the administration was "abandoning" the operations.
"We are not yet decided on that (aborting the rescue operation). We are going to take inputs from all the experts from different organisations involved in the rescue operation," Sangma told journalists here in Meghalaya.
"Once we get the report from all of them, then it will be appropriate for us to decide on how to move forward."
"They are abandoning the whole process," Grover appearing for PIL petitioner Aditya N Prasad told the bench.
Solicitor General Mehta objected to Grover telling the court that the administration can't have a "lackadaisical" approach to carrying out the rescue operations.
Navy 'suspends' operation
On Sunday, the Indian Navy "suspended" its operation in retrieving the body from the mine as the body was disintegrating with every pull.
On Naval divers suspending the operations, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said: "The report that has come to us is that if we try to bring out the body it will disintegrate. It is becoming a next to impossible task bring out the body."
In its status report of the rescue operations since January 7, the Advocate General of the Meghalaya government Amit Kumar said that in January the Navy detected one body at a depth of 210 feet.
The identity of this miner could not be ascertained as he was lying prostrate with his head downward and the flesh on his skull had already started to decompose.
The court was told that in the opinion of the Navy, if the body of the miner is pulled further, there would be disintegration of different parts, rendering the same virtually impossible to retrieve.
The Navy has already "suspended" its operation to retrieve the body of the miner.
Deputy Commissioner F.M. Dopth could not be reached for his comment.
Petitioner Prasad, meanwhile, told the apex court that the hesitation of the central and Meghalaya governments to requisition the Army and Air Force to provide logistic support violated Article 21 of the Constitution.
He suggested the court to direct the Defence Ministry to airlift men and equipments through helicopters which can directly land at the helipad constructed on the site without any delay.
Prasad urged the apex court to instruct the Meghalaya government to issue a nation-wide public appeal seeking any equipment that may be required in the rescue operation so that private and public sector units may volunteer them free of charge.
Operation spokesperson R Susngi informed that the district authorities were waiting for the family members of another seven miners hailing from Rajabala area in West Garo Hills district to identify the miner.
They are yet to arrive at the site. We are hoping they will arrive anytime this week, he said, adding that the ROV operations by the Navy was suspended too awaiting further orders from the government.
The court directed further hearing next week as both the Centre and the Meghalaya government said that rescue operations would continue.
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