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No word on trapped miners

More than 24 hours since the Bagdigi mines of Dhanbad were flooded on Friday afternoon, none of the 38 miners trapped inside could be rescued or any of their bodies recovered. However, Bharat Cooking Coal Limited chairman-cum-managing director Ashok Mehta is sanguine about some miners surviving.

The mine, about 12 km from Dhanbad, got flooded after a water tank nearby burst.

One of two high-powered water pumps installed to suck out water from the mine developed a snag on Saturday morning. Installing water pumps is not easy and officials said that it if four to five pumps were installed, it would still take three days to suck out the water.

According to an estimate, there are about 15 million gallons of water inside the mine. Officials claimed that the pump can suck out water at the rate of 3000 gallons per minute.

Hundreds of people gathered around the mine, some of them relatives of the miners. "My brother is trapped inside," said one of them.

The Bharat Cooking Coal Limited has released the names of 26 of the 38 miners trapped inside.

Anger against the authorities is palpable, as lower grade employees alleged that a blast was triggered off in the mine, to extract coal, although water was seeping from nearby abandoned mines for the last few days. "Just for the sake of increasing coal production, the authorities ignored our request," charged a miner of the second shift, who was about to join duty a few hours later.

"The authorities were not aware whether preventive measure were taken or mining had been stopped. Moments after the accident they all fled," his another colleague said.

Employees said that according to rules, no blast should be triggered in the mine at least 100 feet from any water tank, abandoned mine or river. In Friday's case, the distance between the mine and abandoned pit was only 20 feet.

Rain water often reduces abandoned mine pits into permanent ponds. The distance between abandoned pit five (which virtually became a pond) and pit eight, where mining was on, was 20 feet. Seconds after the blast, the 20 feet wall separating the pits collapsed.

Reports said that some of the 150 miners swam out.

Meanwhile, news agency reports said that police cane-charged a mob of agitated workers and relatives, to prevent them from coming near Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, who left the place after a short visit to the site on Saturday.

The chief minister faced a hostile reception, as hundreds of angry workers complained of "mismanagement and negligence by the firm's management" led to the accident.

Marandi met top BCCL officials regarding rescue operations and thereafter wanted to speak to waiting newsmen. But the workers and relatives of the trapped miners rushed towards him, complaining that not much was being done by the management.

On seeing the mob, the CM left the place in his car without speaking to the newsmen.

EARLIER REPORT
Fate of trapped miners remains unknown

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