Fund crunch delays Ksan compensation

SHILLONG: Meghalaya government has not taken any decision as far as paying compensation to the families of the 16 coal miners who died in the illegal coal mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills.
Sources from the Revenue and Disaster Management department informed that no decision has been taken as of now to pay compensation to the families.
“The department would have definitely paid some compensation to the families but the financial condition of the state government is not good as of now,” sources said.
Congress MLA Azad Zaman had said that every single victim of the Ksan mine tragedy should be given a compensation of Rs 20-25 lakh.
Zaman had taken up the cause of the families of seven coal miners from his Rajabala constituency.
The families of the victims have received one lakh each as interim relief from the state government besides Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister’s relief fund.
The matter pertaining to the compensation to the families of the victims will also be raised by the opposition Congress in the upcoming Assembly session.
Seven months after the incident, the Supreme Court in July had allowed the state government’s plea seeking its permission to call off the operations to retrieve the bodies.
It was on December 13 last year that the miners were trapped inside the coal mine after water from nearby Lytein river gushed in.