Meghalaya mine tragedy: No change in water level after 28 Lakh litres drained out

Agencies
January 11, 2019

Shillong, Jan 11: Multi-agencies personnel used high-powered pumps to drain out 28 lakh litres of water from the main shaft, where 15 miners got trapped, but Navy divers Thursday found no change in the water level in the rat-hole mine to resume search operation, officials said. 

Rescuers using pumps from Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and the Odisha Fire Service have managed to pump out 2.1 crore litres of water from the mines, including the main shaft and the abandoned ones in the nearby which might be interconnected to it, till Thursday, they said.

But, still, there has been no significant drop in the water level in these mines, leaving rescuers clueless where and how to look for the diggers, they said.

Kirloskar Brothers Ltd pumps, which was operational from 7 pm Wednesday evening and continued to run for 11 hours, have pumped out 28 lakh litres from the main shaft, the official said.

Operation spokesperson R Susngi said the Navy has conducted searches in at least six mines, including in the main shaft, for the trapped diggers, but there has been no success.

According to the Navy, the water level in the entire area was totally raptured and a search will continue in the adjacent mines, Susngi said.

At least 15 miners are trapped in a 370 foot-deep illegal coal mine at Khloo Ryngksan area of Nongkhlieh elaka under East Jaintia Hills district since December 13 last year.

At the vertical shaft of the mine, the water level is about 160 feet deep rendering the rescue divers from the Indian Navy and the National Disaster Response Force unable to perform safe diving as it is beyond their 100 feet diving capacity, Susngi said.

At least 200 rescuers from the Navy, NDRF, the Odisha Fire Service, State Disaster Response Fund, state Fire service and others from CIL and KBL are involved in the multi-agency rescue operations.

The accident at the mine, about 140 km away from the state capital, has thrown lights on the presence of illegal coal mining using unsafe and unscientific rat-hole methods despite the National Green Tribunal ban since 2014.

Another mine accident was reported last week in which two miners were dead when the mine collapsed.

The mine disaster had earlier drawn the attention of the Supreme Court which had come hard on the state government for not been able to trace the miners.

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News Network
February 29,2020

New Delhi, Feb 29: Amid the raging communal violence in the entire north-east Delhi earlier this week, there were people who were trying to save persons and families from the "other community" from the fury of the mobs of their own community.

Naeem Ali Pradhan, 34, from Shiv Vihar, helped at least 7-8 Hindus on the night of February 24 -- when the violence was at its peak-- escape to safer locations. Shiv Vihar is one of the worst affected areas in the violence.

According to Naeem Ali, that night mobs attacked dozens of shops on the road and later tried to enter inside the residential areas.

Suddenly, he spotted a group of youth who were looking hassled and frantically asking for directions.

"I saw them. Thye were Hindus who were trying to escape a mob looking to target them. They had lost their way inside the streets of our colony. I along with other Muslim men escorted them to the nearby Hindu locality," Naeem, who is also a member of the Aman Committee constituted by the Delhi police, told ANI.

"Several shops which were on the roads including some showrooms were attacked by a group. These Hindus were worried as a mob which was on the main road was attacking people. They asked me the address of a colony as they were unable to find their way," Naeem said.

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday removed Sanjay Jha as a party spokesperson, days after he wrote a newspaper article criticising the party. She also approved the appointment of Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti as national media panelists for the Congress.

"Congress president has also approved that Sanjay Jha be dropped as AICC spokesperson with immediate effect," the party said in an official statement.

In the article published a few days ago, Mr Jha had said, "The Congress has demonstrated extraordinary lassitude, and its lackadaisical attitude towards its own political obsolescence is baffling..."

"I would like to call a spade a spade here and a shovel: there has been no serious effort to get the party up and running with any sense of urgency," he had said in the article in a national newspaper.

"There are many in the party who cannot comprehend this perceptible listlessness. For someone like me, for instance, permanently wedded to Gandhian philosophy and Nehruvian outlook that defines the Congress, it is dismaying to see its painful disintegration," he had said.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case on January 14.

A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

If it is rejected, they are legally bound to move a mercy petition. It is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.

The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

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