NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the ongoing mine mishap case in Meghalaya to next Friday while the state government filed a voluminous status report detailing the steps taken, the sequence of events and the topographical and infrastructural hurdles in the rescue operations.
The Centre on its part also informed the court that all appropriate steps were being taken to rescue 15 miners trapped since December 13 in an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya and Indian Navy has deployed remotely operated underwater vehicle in the operation there.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Navy personnel, Odisha Fire Service and Coal India Limited and others were working in the rescue operation.
Senior lawyer Anand Grover, representing the petitioner, told the bench that he would make a note based on the status report filed in the court and give suggestions which could be considered.
The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on January 11.
The state government, in its status report filed by the Advocate General Amit Kumar, reiterated there was no blue print of the illegal coal mine as it was being run “clandestinely” and rescue operation was extremely challenging as the site was in a difficult terrain where public services, infrastructure and material required were not easily available.
It said the site is located at Ksan near river Lytein and is more than 30 km away from the headquarters and from the road, it was about 3.7 kilometre into the jungle and can be accessed after crossing three streams.
The state said water was rushing into the mine from the nearby river and it was interlinked with at least 20 other mines there besides the nearby river.
It said the site can be accessed only by 4X4 vehicles and there was complete lack of availability of electricity in the nearby areas. It informed the court that fuel required to run generator sets, pumps and vehicles there have to be brought from a distance of one hour and high powered generator sets have to be brought in there for the rescue operation.
“All efforts to rescue the trapped miners are being made with all earnestness and with the hope that the miners are surviving and shall be released from the ordeal,” it said. On the issue of funds the report said that the DC has Rs 30 lakh at his disposal and the state government has sanctioned Rs 20 lakh more for the ongoing operations.
“The NDRF team also used the SONAR system for detection of the trapped victims but were not successful,” it said. SONAR system uses sound propagation to navigate or detect objects on or under the surface of water.
The petitioner also wanted for an early hearing in view of the urgency. But the schedule did not work out and the case was listed for Friday.
Meanwhile, an unmanned, remotely operated vehicle (UROV) of the Navy which was sent down the 370-feet-deep rat-hole coal mine to determine visibility at the base of the shaft reportedly got stuck on Monday, officials said.
The unmanned vehicle was put into service to determine the visibility deep down at the bottom of the mine shaft and in case if there was any sign of the trapped miners, a senior government official told PTI, requesting anonymity.
“The underwater remotely operated vehicle got stuck at the bottom of the 370-feet-mine where the depth of water is over 160 feet,” the official told PTI. How the machine got stuck is yet to be established, but rescue officials at the site suspect that the vehicle could have got itself entangled with some parts of the pump put in by Kirloskar Borthers Ltd which had fallen down.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who was overseeing the entire operation, was also not alerted about the matter as it was “too sensitive”, according to the official sources. This information was also not disclosed by the operation spokesperson R Susngi in his routine update to the media in the evening.
Meanwhile, according to Susngi, Coal India Ltd pumps managed to pull out 2.25 lakh litres of water in two hours as the pump was operational only in the afternoon. CIL pumps were installed in the abandoned mine nearby the main shaft while Odisha Fire Service pumps were installed along the way to take the water up to the river Lytein, he said. The two pumps put in by OFS for 10 hours managed to pump out approximate 1.8 lakh litres of water from another abandoned mine shaft nearby, Susngi said. Monday was the 26th day of the mine disaster. (With agency input)
