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Rescue operation in flooded mine to continue, Meghalaya tells SC
Despite a massive rescue operation no one has been found alive in the flooded mine so far.
The Meghalaya government today assured the Supreme Court that the state government and the Centre are not abandoning the efforts to rescue 15 miners trapped inside an illegal rat-hole mine in East Jaintia Hills since December 13, 2018, ANI reported.
A massive rescue operation involving the NDRF, the Navy and other experts has been under way but no miner has been found alive so far. Last week, a remote operated vehicle (ROV) of the navy the body of one of the miners. While efforts are on to retrieve the body, there is a risk of it disintegrating, rescuers had said.
On Sunday, the navy had suspend operations to retrieve the body.
Over the weekend, state government officials had suggested that that rescue operation was still under way only because of a Supreme Court order. Earlier this month, the Centre had told the court that rescue operations were difficult in the absence of a blueprint of the mine.
On Sunday, East Jaintia Hills district Deputy Commissioner FM Dopth asked families of the trapped miners from West Garo Hills to come to the site of the accident in an effort to identify the body.
Five miners managed to escape after the mine flooded and alerted the people about the tragedy at Ksan village, about 130 km from Shillong.
