E-Paper
3 women buried alive in crater after land subsidence in BCCL’s Kusunda colliery
Eyewitnesses said one of the women slipped into a 30-feet crater that developed suddenly on the road and the other two also fell into it while trying to rescue her
Three women were buried alive after falling into a crater that developed due to land subsidence in a colliery area of coal company Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district on Sunday.
The incident took place in the Kusunda colliery area, about 7 km from Dhanbad district headquarters, when the three women were returning home through the transporting route of BCCL after attending to nature’s call at around 1pm.
The women have been identified as Manwa Devi (60), Parla Devi (55) and Thandi Devi (55), residents of Dhobi Kulhi, a slum area.
Locals quoting eyewitnesses said one of the women slipped into a 30-feet crater that developed suddenly on the road and the other two also fell into it while trying to rescue her. Soon, other residents of the area reached the site along with the family members of the victims.
A rescue team of BCCL also reached the site and began the rescue operation by carrying out digging of the debris but there was no trace of the women till the time of filing of this report.
Senior officials of the district administration and a police team led by circle officers of Dhanbad and Baghmara, Prashant Kumar Layak and Kamal Kishore Singh, respectively, reached the site along with a large number of policemen and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel.
Agitated over the incident, locals accused BCCL of not carrying out proper rehabilitation of the people from the surrounding subsidence prone areas. BCCL officers, who reached the site, had to go back from there after agitated local residents misbehaved with them and even manhandled the officers.
Ishrafil Lala, a local resident and also Dhanbad Zila Parishad member, blamed BCCL, local people’s representatives and the district administration for not carrying out the rehabilitation. He also threatened to stall production until alternative arrangements are made to rehabilitate people to safer places.
Another local resident Mahesh Rajak said, “BCCL authorities are directly responsible for the incident as another incident of subsidence had taken place here about 13 months ago, but no concrete action has been taken to rehabilitate them as yet”
Prashant Layak, Dhanbad circle officer, said “Rescue operation is going on at present and the laid procedure of providing compensation to the family members would be followed after the recovery of the bodies.”
On the demand for rehabilitation, he said, “A committee constituted by the district administration had identified a land for rehabilitating the people and only BCCL officials can tell why rehabilitation has not been carried out as yet”
BK Jha, project officer of Kusunda Colliery of BCCL said “The subsidence took place today due to water seeping inside the colliery, leading to relocation of soil and resultant formation of crater.”
