NEW DELHI/DHANBAD, 9 September 2006 — Badly charred bodies of many miners trapped inside the Nagda Colliery at Bhatdih (Dhanbad) since Wednesday were pulled out yesterday.
“Forty-six bodies have been identified and of them 39 have been brought out and sent for post-mortem,” state official Bela Rajesh said.
Of the 57 miners earlier trapped, only a few managed to escape. The final toll according to Rajesh, “will be 50.” Deaths were due to inhalation of carbon monoxide following an underground explosion at the state-owned Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) mine on Wednesday evening. The explosion is suspected to have been caused by pressure due to accumulation of methane and carbon monoxide.
Agitated relatives of dead miners blamed the BCCL for forcing the miners to work in a mine, which was emitting poisonous gas. They also blamed the BCCL for not starting rescue work in time.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, who visited the accident site and heard the complaints of the relatives, said: “Had the BCCL started rescue operation in time, the trapped miners could have been saved.” Munda was critical of the slow pace of rescue operations and also of the safety standards.
“Not only this mine, we have to examine safety standards in all mines across the state,” he said.
Observing that little attention had been paid to such factors, Munda said: “We had suggested to the Coal Ministry authorities that a Global Positioning System (GPS) be provided to the miners so their position could be located if any tragedy takes place. But our suggestion was not taken notice of.”
Describing it as “unprecedented situation” where chances of trapped miners’ survival were put at zero, BCCL Chairman Partha Bhattacharya said: “The miners were working at a depth of 460 meters when the explosion took place and the gas leak reduced the oxygen level to almost zero.”
A union member, however, blamed the BCCL for not having updated the map of mine making rescue work more difficult. Though the poisonous methane gas had been leaking for sometime, BCCL chose to ignore it, sources said.
“This mine is one of the most poisonous BCCL mines. The management did not adopt any safety measures. Water sprinkling facilities, sand bags, gas testing machines should be available at collieries,” Jharkhand Center for Indian Trade Union (CITU) President S.K. Baxi said.
“But no such arrangements had been made available there. The safety measures were given the go-by. The management and project manager did not bother to enter the mine to assess the situation caused by poisonous gases,” he said.
Senior officials said that they had engaged 20 teams in rescue operations who drilled holes to let in fresh air in the mine until late Thursday. They failed to reach the miners because of noxious gases and high temperatures.
The Indian Coal Ministry has ordered a departmental investigation into the accident.
Expressing shock at the incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured support for relatives of deceased. Union Coal Minister Shibu Soren, who visited the accident site on Thursday, announced compensation of $6,400 each to families of deceased workers and a job for their next of kin.
“BCCL has started distributing compensation and letters of employment to the next of kin of the dead miners,” Bhattacharya said. “Extensive arrangements have been made for providing relief and other support to the affected families.”
Mine disasters are common in mineral-rich Jharkhand state, where since 1952, 1,447 people have died in 31 mining accidents.
