After Navy, Meghalaya suspends operation to retrieve dead miner’s body

Shillong, Jan. 21 (PTI):  Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma Monday suspended the operation to retrieve the body of a dead miner trapped inside a 370-foot-deep coal mine to avoid disintegration of the decomposed corpse.

The state government’s order came a day after the Navy on Sunday suspended the operation to pull the body out after it was found by the unmanned ROV last week during a routine search mission inside the main shaft where the 15 miners are trapped since December 13.

The state government has given the order of suspending the operation to pull out the body of the miner as it is becoming an impossible task, Sangma told mediapersons at the sidelines of a programme here.

We decided that we will suspend the operation because it is really not working out, he added.

We have asked the medical department, Navy, administration and forensic department for their advice and observation, he said.

Asked if the state government will call off the rescue operations involving multi-agencies including the Navy and the NDRF, Sangma said, no decision had been taken yet.

We are going to take inputs from all the experts from different organisations that have been working on this and once we get the report from all of them, it will be appropriate to decide on how to move forward, he said.

Operation spokesperson R Susngi on the other hand informed that the district authorities were waiting for the family members of another seven miners hailing from Rajabala area in West Garo Hills district to identify the miner.

They are yet to arrive at the site. We are hoping they will arrive anytime this week, he said, adding that the ROV operations by the Navy was suspended too awaiting further orders from the government.

Meanwhile, dewatering in nearby abandoned mines continued and three agencies including Coal India Ltd, KSB and Odisha Fire Service and jointly discharged 81 lakh litres of water in the past 12 hours, Susngi said.