SHILLONG: The Centre has granted Rs 2 lakh each as interim relief to the families of the 16 trapped coal miners at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills.
The miners were trapped when water flooded the mine on December 13 last year.
An official source said on Saturday that the Union Home Ministry recently released interim relief of Rs 2 lakh for each affected family.
Earlier, the state government had released Rs 1 lakh to each family.
The official added that the final order on compensation to the victims’ families will come from the Supreme Court as a petition related to the matter is pending.
The petitioner, Aditya N Prasad, recently visited two families of the trapped miners in Lumthari.
He was asked by the court to meet the families of the miners and find out if they wanted the nearly four-month-long rescue operation to continue.
Prasad also met the kin of Kuti Miyan, who was the 16th to be added to the list of trapped miners earlier this month, at Guwahati airport. Miyan hailed from Lanka in Hojai district of Assam. Sources said Prasad had also tried to contact some other families of trapped miners in Assam but in vain.
Rajabala MLA Azad Zaman said recently he had spoken to the family members of seven trapped miners from Garo Hills and they suggested that adequate compensation be paid as the exercise to recover the bodies is taking a long time.
Sources said the SP of East Jaintia Hills had called the family of Kuti Miyan and handed over the cheque of Rs 3 lakh to them on Friday. The family was not paid the Rs 1 lakh interim relief paid to others earlier as Kuti Miyan’s name was added much later.
