Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday suspended the operation to retrieve the body of a dead miner trapped inside a 370-foot-deep coal mine to avoid disintegration of the decomposed corpse.
The State Government’s order came a day after the Navy on Sunday suspended the operation to pull the body out after it was found by the unmanned ROV last week during a routine search mission inside the main shaft where the 15 miners are trapped since December 13.
The State Government has given the order of suspending the operation to pull out the body of the miner as it is becoming an impossible task, Sangma told mediapersons.
We decided that we will suspend the operation because it is really not working out, he added. We have asked the medical department, Navy, administration and forensic department for their advice and observation, he said. Asked if the State Government will call off the rescue operations involving multi-agencies, including the Navy and the NDRF, Sangma said, no decision had been taken yet. We are going to take inputs from all the experts from different organisations that have been working on this and once we get the report from all of them, it will be appropriate to decide on how to move forward, he said.
Operation spokesperson R Susngi on the other hand informed that the district authorities were waiting for the family members of another seven miners hailing from Rajabala area in West Garo Hills district to identify the miner.