Shillong, June 1: Meghalaya has constituted a magisterial enquiry into the incident of five miners missing in a coal mine since May 30, 2021 in Sutnga Elaka of East Jaintia Hills. At the same time, the state government is troubled at the instances of illegal coal mining that keeps coming up time and again.
Meghalaya Home Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui has expressed his sadness over the incident of missing miners but asserted that the case of illegal coal mining is “totally unacceptable on the part of the government”.
“Some greedy people try to circumvent the law… this is unacceptable,” he told reporters on Tuesday as he assured that the police will thoroughly investigate the issue and take necessary action against those involved in this incident.
He, however, added that the incident happened in a coal mine that is 3-4 kms away from the main road; hence it is difficult for the police to detect such incidents. In order to better man the area, he said the police department has proposed to upgrade the Umpleng AD Camp in Sutnga Elaka to an Outpost.
On the rescue efforts at the mine, he said SDRF, Fire brigade, and police are at the spot but the water level is yet to recede, so they cannot do anything except to wait.
He further said the priority for the police is to find the accused in the case in order to know about the specifics of the event, the mining as well as the people involved.
East Jaintia Hills (EJH) police on Monday registered a case against an incident of illegal coal mining which led to five persons being trapped to death inside the mine in the district. Three of the five missing persons have been identified as Abdul Karim from Boko, Assam, Abdul Kalam from Barpeta, Assam and Shyamcharan Debbarma from Tripura. The two unidentified persons are said to be from Silchar, Assam.
The incident came to fore after the Superintendent of Police, Silchar contacted his counterpart in East Jaintia Hills to enquire about 6 mine workers who were trapped in a coal mine in East Jaintia Hills after a dynamite blast on the night of May 30, 2021.
