SHILLONG: The petitioner in the Supreme Court, Aditya N Prasad, who is pursuing the case of 16 trapped miners at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills, met only two affected families at Lumthari for the last two days since Saturday.
Earlier, the district administration wanted other affected families from Garo Hills and Assam to come to Khliehriat to meet the petitioner who was assigned by the Supreme Court to speak to the families to know whether they are willing to call off the operations to recover the bodies.
Sources said the two families from Lumthari did not have any direct answer for the petitioner as their plea was that if possible, the authorities should retrieve the bodies.
The petitioner will leave Shillong on Monday without meeting other affected families from Garo Hills and Assam.
A government source said though the families were informed to come to Khliehriat, they may be finding it difficult to reach East Jaintia Hills.
Sources said the petitioner was also not being able to travel to Garo Hills and Assam to meet the affected families due to logistic problems.
When contacted, the petitioner said he could only meet the two families at Lumthari and did not want to reveal what transpired in the meeting.
“I cannot make any comments, I will have to inform the court,” he said.
Prasad also hinted at the difficulties in reaching out to the families in Garo Hills and Assam since “nothing was arranged”.
On Sunday, Justina Dkhar from Lumthari, the mother of one of the missing miners, who reported unwell was attended by the doctor in charge of Sutnga CHC and medicated accordingly.
After the petitioner left the area, the deputy commissioner spoke with the relatives and noted their concerns, an official source said.
None contacted Assam families
Manik Ali, elder brother of Monirul Islam, who is among the 16 miners trapped, told The Shillong Times on phone from his home at Bogidwary village in Assam’s Chirang district that no official had contacted the family over any matter since the past two months.
When informed about the Supreme Court’s direction to the petitioner to ascertain whether the families of the trapped miners wanted the search and rescue operation to continue, he said there was no point.
“After all, we don’t expect them to be alive anymore,” he said, adding that “it would be more meaningful if the government told the families that it would be futile to continue with the search operation, pay whatever compensation is just and bring closure to the episode”.
Three miners, including Monirul Islam from Bogidwary village, were trapped in the mine. Of them, the body of one Amir Hussain was retrieved.
Hydrologist for more pumps
An official statement said Sudhir Kumar, a scientist at National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, visited the incident site at Ksan on Saturday for the second time as instructed by the Supreme Court to assess the process of dewatering.
Kumar said if 20 more high power pumps are installed, the dewatering process can be more fruitful and search could be more effective. He also informed that a report will be submitted to the government in this regard.
Earlier, the petitioner, who visited Ksan, also enquired about the pumping process carried out by different agencies.