Assam Coal Mine Tragedy: Congress protest against the accident and the coal syndicate

GUWAHATI-  While rescue efforts by multiple teams  to recover the bodies of  labourers from a coal mine in Umrongso, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) launched statewide protests on Friday,  on the other hand the ‘sardar’ of workers of the coal mine was arrested.

The APCC accused the BJP-led government of enabling an illegal coal syndicate responsible for the tragic incident in Dima Hasao district.  They also demanded the government to identify the people behind the coal syndicate and take proper action against them.

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Led by APCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah, hundreds of Congress workers gathered at district headquarters, including Manabendra Sarma Complex in Guwahati, demanding accountability for the deaths. Borah questioned Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s inaction against illegal coal mining despite the Supreme Court’s ban on rat-hole mining in the Northeast.

He accused Konika Hojai, wife of CEM Debolal Gorlosa, of conducting rat-hole mining and alleged the Assam Mineral Development Corporation (AMDC) collected revenue from coal linked to the illegal operations.

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The ‘sardar’ of workers of the coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, where eight miners remained trapped, was arrested, even as a dewatering exercise continued in the quarry to facilitate the resumption of rescue operations, police said on Friday.

The fate of the trapped miners appeared to be grim with personnel involved in the rescue operations racing against time to bring them out of the ill-fated quarry, while the body of one labourer, hailing from Nepal, has been recovered from there, an official said.

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Efforts to rescue eight people from a coal mine in Assam entered the fifth day on Friday, with Coal India installing a 500 GPM (gallons per minute) pump to dewater the mine, in which the people have been trapped since January 6.

As per the information from the accident site, the rescue operation is getting delayed because the water flooding the 3 Kilo Quarry has turned acidic and murky due to mixing with coal, hampering visibility and making maneuverability difficult for the Navy divers.