Apex court orders mine owner be made party

NEW DELHI: After hearing the case of miners trapped in a rat-hole coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills district for nearly two months, the Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on the owner of the illegal coal mine.
Observing that the mishap has taken place “because of illegal mining in the concerned mine for which, obviously, the mine owner is responsible”, the court directed that Jrin Chullet alias Krip Chullet of Narwan village under Saipung police station be issued notice and be impleaded as a respondent.
The court is hearing a PIL seeking urgent steps for rescuing the miners trapped in the mine since December 13 last year.
The case was listed for hearing on February 22.
The court also asked Meghalaya government and Coal India Ltd to give particulars of other illegal mines operating in the area.
Incidentally, the state government had admitted that illegal coal mines were still operating even after the NGT banned coal mining in the hill state in April, 2014.
Anand Grover, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner Advocate Aditya N Prasad, pointed out that the problem of de-watering the mines still persists. He further informed that Kirloskar has sufficient number of 100 HP capacity pumps and is even ready to supply these.
Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, accepted the suggestion and submitted that these pumps would be airlifted to the nearest point of the site and shall be installed at the earliest.
The Solicitor General assured that lifting of Kirloskar pumps by Air Force and Army sappers to help in installing them on site will be done as asked for by the petitioners. Facility for landing of helicopters at Khliehriat, which was also sought, will also be looked into, he said.
Both the state government and the Centre had assured the Supreme Court earlier that they would not abandon the operation to rescue the miners.
The state government filed a status report on the rescue operation and mentioned the various problems encountered such as the difficult terrain and lack of proper infrastructure at the site.
The mine was flooded and at least 15 miners were trapped. Rescue operations so far have yielded the body of one miner from Chirang district of Assam while another body was also detected subsequently on January 26, but the Indian Navy personnel have not been able to bring it out yet because of obstructions inside the mine.