After 77 days, second decomposed body taken out of rat-hole mine in Meghalaya
5 out of 15 men detected till now
Shillong, Feb 28: The heavily decomposed body of an unidentified mined has been retrieved from a 370 ft illegal rat-hole mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, 77 days after 15 men got trapped inside the flooded coal quarry, an official said.
According to the official, the body, located 200 ft from the bottom of the mine, was brought out on Wednesday using Indian Navy's underwater remotely operated vehicle (UROV) and a NDRF boat.
This is the second "heavily" decomposed body to be lifted from the mine after it flooded accidentally on December 13, 2018.
The body was dispatched to Civil Hospital at the district headquarter in Khliehriat for post-mortem, operations spokesperson R Susngi said.
The miners were trapped inside the illegal mine in Lumthari village of East Jaintia Hills district on December 13 after water from the nearby Lytein river gushed in.
The first body, identified as that of Amir Hussain from Assam's Chirang district, was pulled out of the mine on January 23.
Apart from the Indian Navy, the Army, the NDRF and the state's agencies are engaged in the operations that begun hours after the accident took place.
Three companies, the Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and the KSB, continued with de-watering the mines and their total water discharge in 24 hours is over one crore litres, Susngi said.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
