Hindustan Times reported that heavy downpour has affected rescue operation of 15 miners, who are trapped in a private coal pit in remote south Garo Hills district of Meghalaya since last Friday.

The district's deputy commissioner in charge Mr RP Marak told HT “Two teams of the National Disaster Relief Force reached the village on Wednesday night. But heavy downpour hampered the rescue operations today.”

Villagers said NDRF personnel and locals have been pumping out water from the quarry but more water seems to be gushing in all the time. They said the chances of the 15 miners staying alive were very dim.

Rights and anti human trafficking activists have meanwhile underscored the perils of rat hole mining. The NGO claimed rat hole mines of coal rich Meghalaya employ some 70,000 child miners though the government put the figure at 222. Ms Hasina Kharbhih of NGO Impulse said “The government should step in now. It is a myth that mining laws cannot be applied in Meghalaya because the mines are privately owned as per traditional rights.”

Source - Hindustan Times

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