SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad Feb 2: District administration and Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) management has stopped the rescue operation in illegal mining incident spot and barricaded the Gopinathpur colliery in Nirsa block of Dhanbad where five bodies were recovered on Tuesday.
SDPO Nirsa Pitamber Singh Kharwar today said that since there was no chance of recovery of another body in debris of mines, rescue operation has been stopped and the incident spot of Gopinathpur colliery has been barricaded.
“Now senior officials will probe the reason for the illegal mining incident and for illegal action against persons involved in the tragedy,” said SDPO Pitamber Singh Kharwar. Senior superintendent of police Sanjiv Kumar has set up a SIT under Rural Superintendent of Police Reeshma Ramesan for the incident.
Meanwhile, former Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee claimed that a total of 13 persons died in the illegal mining incidents that occurred simultaneously in three mines.
“I had informed SDPO, Nirsa, SDM Dhanbad at around 7.30 a.m. Had they responded, villagers would not have taken away bodies from spots,” said Arup Chatterjee.
Former Nirsa MLA claimed that villagers had taken away three bodies from Gopinathpur Colliery in the morning where five bodies came out in the rescue operation of administration in the evening. Besides it, villagers took away three bodies from Dahibari project of BCCL and two from Kapasara open cast project after the incident.
