SHILLONG: The number of miners trapped in the rat-hole coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills district has gone up to 16 after the name of one Kuti Miyan was included in the list.
Earlier, the family of Kuti Miyan had claimed that he, too, was in the ill-fated mine when the accident took place on December 13 last year.
Kalamuddin, brother of Kuti Miyan, had earlier said that the family had approached the authorities the very next day and reported about his brother also being in the mine. The family had also subsequently lodged a report with Assam police.
Kuti Miyan hails from Lanka in Hojai district of Assam.
Meanwhile, officials said that the interim relief has so far not been paid to Kuti Miyan’s family and will be disbursed after approval from the state government.
The government had earlier announced an amount of Rs one lakh as interim relief each for the victims. Kalamuddin’s brother-in-law Aminuluddin had also worked at the same mine, but had gone home to vote in the Assam panchayat elections when the accident happened trapping the 15 miners besides Kuti Miyan.
Kuti Miyan’s immediate family consists of his wife and three children with the eldest, a son, aged 15 years.
Rescue teams have so far retrieved two of the five bodies detected so far.
