New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi made a fervent appeal to the Meghalaya government on Friday to make as a first priority the rescue of the people who are trapped in a coal mine for more than a month.
“I am very pained at learning about the news of the death of a trapped miner in Meghalaya’s coal mines. Many of our labourers are struck there. I appeal to the government to make this their first priority. The families of the trapped labour force are waiting for their safe return. I pray to God for their safe return to homes,” Gandhi said in a Facebook post in Hindi.
Navy divers had found a body of one of the 15 trapped miners and also spotted several skeletons in the flooded rat-hole coal mine in East Jaintia Hills district on Thursday, weeks after a multi-agency search operation was launched to rescue them, officials said. Around 15 miners remain trapped in the mine since December 13 after water from a nearby river gushed in. The rescue efforts picked up days later when several agencies were roped in as the rescuers were struggling to pump out water from the mines.