Navy divers arrive to rescue miners

SHILLONG, June 12: A team of crack Navy divers arrived on Saturday night to bolster the rescue operations of the six miners who are trapped at Krem Ule, Umpleng in East Jaintia Hills for a fortnight.
A senior official on Saturday informed that 13 Indian Navy personnel arrived at Khliehriat and are likely to dive deep into the water-filled mines in search of unlikely survivors.
Earlier, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had written to the Ministry of Defence to provide Navy divers to augment the rescue operations.
Meanwhile, senior official informed that Mujamel Hoque, brother of the missing person (L) Abdul Karim who has been allegedly trapped inside the mine and three others Kalam visited the site and met the Deputy Commissioner at the accident site.
According to the senior official, the family members during the conversation with the Deputy Commissioner appreciated the efforts of the state government to rescue the trapped miners.
Further, in continuation of the rescue operation, the rescue teams of NDRF and SDRF on Saturday morning found that the water had risen by another eight feet due to continuous overnight rainfall.
During the dewatering process; 3.60 lakhs litres of water has been pumped out from the main shaft and 4.59 lakhs litres of water from the 2nd shaft. The dewatering process is going on.
The Kirloskar water pump was put into use yesterday evening but developed technical snag. On verification it was found that the pump cannot be repaired by the local mechanic as the water pump was kept in the open end exposed to the bad elements for the last one and a half years.