Supreme Court asks govt to continue rescue operations for trapped Meghalaya miners

Supreme Court asks Centre and Meghalaya government to continue efforts to rescue miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in East Jaintia Hills district.

A bench headed by Justice AK Sikri asked the governments to keep looking for the miners, days after Indian navy’s divers detected the body of a second miner.

The order came after the Meghalaya government had informed it that the workers trapped in an illegal coal mine for more than a month may have died.

Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta had assured the court that the Centre was not abandoning efforts to rescue the trapped miners.

At least 15 miners were trapped in the remote illegal coal mine in Khloo Ryngksan in East Jaintia hills district when it got flooded due to nearby Lytein river on December 13.

One body, belonging to Amir Hussain (30), as identified by his wife and mother, was recovered last Thursday and a second was detected on Saturday.

Divers are now making efforts to pull out the second body. We are hopeful of taking it out as soon as possible, a rescue official said.

He said that the second body was detected from the same rat-hole coal mine where the underwater remotely operated vehicle (UROV) found the first body of a miner on January 16.

The court has posted the matter for next hearing on February 4.