SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 1: At least nine people are feared trapped and over a dozen got injured in three separate incidents during illegal mining in Dhanbad based mines of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) under Nirsa and Panchet police stations of the district on early morning of Tuesday.
Dhanbad superintendent of police (SP rural) Reshma Ramesan admitted that mines incidents have happened during illegal mining in ECL and BCCL mines in Nirsa area.
“But I can’t say about the numbers of casualty and injured persons. We are verifying the casualty and would say after getting reports,” said Rural SP.
After getting information of the incidents, concerned coal companies deployed heavy machines for rescue operations at all three mines for searching the alleged trapped persons.
Fearing police action, family members of trapped illegal miners are not claiming the casualty.
Official sources said that the first incident occurred in Kapasara outsourcing project of ECL under Nirsa police station at around 5 p.m. on Monday.
The second incident occurred in the Chanch Victoria area of Bharat Coking Coal Limited on Monday night while the third incident was reported from Gopinathpur open cast mines (OCP) on Tuesday morning.
Village sources said that hundreds of illegal miners were mining when the support roof of mines caved in during mining.
In Gopinathpur OCP, three are feared trapped and five persons were reportedly injured who managed to come out from mines afterwards.
Several slippers were found scattered at the entrance gate of mines. Sources said villagers took away the injured persons before police and colliery security personnel reached the incident spot.
At the Kapasara Colliery, three persons are feared trapped and two persons were injured.
In the incident in the CV area of BCCL, three persons are feared trapped in debris following roof collapse during illegal mining at night.
Officials of coal companies monitoring the rescue operations said that debris is being removed from incident spot and could say about trapped persons only after completion of operation
