Many feared trapped as 3 abandoned coal mines collapse in Jharkhand during illegal mining
Dhanbad (PTI): Many people were fear trapped as three abandoned coal mines collapsed during illegal mining in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, officials said on Tuesday.
The first incident happened at Kapasara outsourcing project of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) in Nirsa police station area around 5 pm on Monday, they said.
The second incident took place in Chach Victoriya of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Nirsa on Monday night, while the third incident happened on Tuesday morning at Gopinathpur open cast mines of the ECL in Panchet police station area, they said.
Rescue operations with heavy machinery are underway at the three mines, officials said.
The incidents happened during illegal mining and only the coal companies can specify the number of people trapped inside, said Superintendent of Police (Dhanbad-Rural) Reeshma Ramesan.
"I can't say the number of casualties and injured. We are verifying the details and would say after getting reports. Our teams have rushed there," she said.
Fearing police action, families of the illegal miners are yet to report to the authorities if there was any person missing, officials said.
Villagers also managed to rescue some of those who could come out of the debris, before the colliery officials or police reached the spot, they said.
An official of the ECL said the incident occurred at abandoned mines and so it falls in the purview of the district administration.
"Within our working mines, there is no such information (of collapse). That might be due to illegal activities in abandoned mines but not in our working mines," he said.
"We are not in a position to tell about the number of villagers trapped," he added.
Three people are feared trapped and five persons injured in In the Gopinathpur mine of the ECL, official sources said. In the Kapasara colliery of ECL, three persons are feared trapped and two persons injured, they said.
Several slippers were found at the entrance gates of the mines, indicating many were trapped.
The BCCL, however, said that it will share the details later.
In Chach Victoriya area of BCCL, three persons were feared trapped in debris after the roof collapsed during illegal mining, official sources said.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
