Close shave for labourers as stone mine caves-in at Giridih

A major mishap was averted on Saturday as all 11 labourers, trapped under the wreckages of Kargali stone mines under Rajdhanwar Police Station in Giridih, were safely rescued by the district administration on Sunday afternoon within hours after the incident. Mining activities were on using three drilling machines at a time the incident happened on Saturday evening.

“No casualty has been recorded so far as all the labourers trapped under the debris have been rescued as most of them had been rescued by the police team with the help of villagers,” said Giridih SP Surendra Kumar Jha. A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was also roped in to rescue the trapped labourers and were finally rescued by Sunday afternoon, he added.Interestingly, four out of 11 labourers had been rescued on Saturday itself with the help of villagers while the rest of them remained under it till Sunday afternoon and who finally came out on Sunday afternoon. Police have lodged an FIR in this regard in the local police Station against the owner Virendra Modi.

“FIR has been lodged in this regard at Rajdhanwar Police Station against the mine owner, hailing from Domchanch of Koderma district and investigations have been initiated in this regard. More names are likely to be inducted into it gradually during the investigations. Whether the mine was legal or illegal, it is a matter of investigation and action will be taken accordingly,” said the SP.The eyewitnesses said that the incident took place at around 5 pm when 11 labourers were involved in mining activities with the help of three drilling machines at a time.

“All of a sudden the mine caved in and all 11 persons working in it got trapped in it. Since it sounded loudly, four of us got some time to get away to a safe distance but seven others got trapped in it,” said a labourer Santosh Singh. Several heavy earthmovers are still under the debris, he added.

According to District Mining Officer Bibhuti Bhushan, a notice had been issued to the lease holder to stop mining, but they did not pay heed to it and were carrying out mining activities illegally due to which a complaint has been lodged with the Police. It was also told that since the mine has become very old due to which it has lost its caring capacity and has become over 600 feet deep as continuous mining was being done into it.