9 trapped Meghalaya miners' families agree to stop search operations
The search operation continued for 130 days before stopping on Sunday
Shillong, Apr 21: Families of nine of the 16 miners trapped inside an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya since December, have given consent to the district administration to stop the ongoing search operations which entered its 130th day on Sunday, officials said.
The bodies of only two victims one from nearby Lumthari village and another from Assam, have been retrieved from the mine in East Jaintia Hills district early this year.
"We have received letters of consent from the families to stop the ongoing search operations. The letters, submitted by families to the district administration, have been sent to the state government and the same will be submitted to the Supreme Court for granting necessary approval," a senior official told PTI.
Those who have written to the administration include families of two miners hailing from Lumthari village in East Jaintia Hills and the rest from Assam, the official said.
The miners were trapped after water from the nearby Lytein river gushed into the 370-feet deep mine in Lumthari village in the Ksan area on December 13 last year.
On January 28, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and the Meghalaya government to continue their multi-agency operations to rescue the miners.
The families, however, have requested that the compensation be increased, he said.
East Jaintia Hills district deputy commissioner F M Dopth had submitted all the letters to the state government on April 16 last and cited that the operation be called off as there had been no tangible result.
Depth also informed that there was no reduction of water level at the main shaft where the miners are trapped even after several crores litre of water had been discharged.
Currently, submersible pumps of Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and KSB are engaged in pumping out water from the ill-fated mine and nearby mines on a daily basis.
The ongoing operation involves the NDRF, the Indian Navy, the Army and the Air Force besides the states disaster response team and the fire services.
The Supreme Court monitors the operation on a weekly basis.
The district administration has paid Rs 3 lakh interim relief to the families of the 16 miners trapped in the mine at Ksan area but the families have demanded the relief amount be increased, Dopth said.
Of the 21 miners who went down on the morning of December 13 last year, 5 narrowly escaped the flooded mine and the rest were trapped.
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Owaisi seeks independent probe into cleric’s death on train, calls it ‘transit-based hate crime’
New Delhi: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has written to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, requesting an independent investigation into the death of Maulana Tousif Raza Mazhari, who allegedly died after being assaulted on a train in Uttar Pradesh on April 26.
In his letter, Owaisi defined the incident as a "transit-based hate crime" and raised concerns about what he called frequent attempts to dismiss such incidents as unintentional.
According to The Observer Post, Mazhari was travelling on Train No. 04314 after attending a religious meeting in Bareilly when the incident occurred.
The Hyderabad MP also demanded financial compensation for the victim’s family and a government job on compassionate grounds for a dependent. He noted that the deceased was the sole breadwinner.
According to the family, Mazhari, an imam and madrasa teacher from Kishanganj, was allegedly assaulted by a group of passengers who accused him of theft. His wife, Tabassum Khatoon, claimed she witnessed part of the incident during a video call, in which he was seen being beaten and dragged despite identifying himself as a teacher.
Police in Bareilly said the case came to light after a body was recovered near railway tracks on April 27. The incident was initially treated as a possible accidental fall. However, following objections raised by the family, officials said further investigation is underway.
The case has drawn reactions from several opposition leaders, including Md Jawaid, Imran Pratapgarhi, and Chandrashekhar Azad. They questioned the initial police version and called for a transparent investigation.
