NEW DELHI/ SHILLONG: AICC president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter on Wednesday to taunt Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inaction of his government in expediting rescue of 15 trapped miners in an illegal rat-hole mine in East Jaintia Hills.
The AICC has also decided to send its state leaders to the accident site where none of the ministers or allied members has visited even after a fortnight of uncertainty over the fate of the miners.
Gandhi on Wednesday tweeted, “15 miners have been struggling for air in a flooded coal mine for two weeks. Meanwhile, PM struts about on Bogibeel Bridge posing for cameras. His government refuses to organise high pressure pumps for the rescue. PM please save the miners.”
He also tagged a media report stating that the rescue efforts were hampered by lack of effective equipment.
Modi was in Assam on Tuesday to inaugurate the country’s longest rail-cum-road bridge on the Brahmaputra in Bogibeel.
Replying to Gandhi’s tweet, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju blamed the negligence of the previous Congress government for the tragedy.
“No politics on tragedy please @RahulGandhi ji. We have been helping the State Govt with all possible means. But the unsafe illegal mining activities were due to the negligence of the previous Congress govt,” tweeted Rijiju referring to the Congress which ruled the state before the Conrad Sangma-led National People’s Party came to power in March 2018.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was also quick to issue his statement on the matter and maintained that it was not a time to play politics. “The situation right now is very difficult in the coal mine in the district and almost the entire river has come into the mine,” he said in a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
Asserting that 12 lakh litres of water have been pumped out, Sangma said the water level was rising and that the government was in the process to get high-capacity pumps.
“There is no question of calling off the operation and the operation is going to go to a different level now… We will continue trying and give more efforts,” he said while adding that the MHA is in touch and helping the state government.
Congress MLA HM Shangpliang told The Shillong Times that a team of Congress leaders will be visiting the site soon.
Shangpliang hailed Gandhi for his intervention and hoped that the Centre will assist and direct the state government to help rescue the trapped miners. “Forget about the chief minister or any minister, not even the local MLA (Kyrmen Shylla) who is a minister has gone to the spot even after two weeks,” he pointed out.
Shangpliang said the Centre should now direct Coal India to rush its high-powered submersible pumps to extract water from the mine. Rescue workers from the National Disaster Response Force and its state counterpart have been trying to reach coal miners for days but chances of survival looked slim after water from the nearby Lytein river continued to flood the pit.
Meanwhile, Shylla, Meghalaya’s minister in charge of disaster management, said only “God’s grace and some miracle can help them to be alive”.
The rescue operation was suspended on Monday following flash floods.
A team of about 100 NDRF experts have been camping at the mine site. But their operations have been hampered owing to lack of sophisticated equipment.
Vineet Punia, AICC secretary of the communication department, said the party was hoping for the best as “every life is precious”. (With inputs from PTI)