leader of Opposition TS Singh Deo said in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Thursday that it was not the first time that an incident such as collapse of a section of the Bildwar cave had taken place in Surajpur district this week.
It may be recalled that eight people were killed on the spot after a part of the ceiling of the entrance of Bildwar cave below which they were sitting suddenly collapsed at Pratappur region about 22 kms from Ambikapur on Tuesday afternoon. The issue was raised by Congress leader Satyanarayan Sharma during the Question Hour saying that the BJP Government was informed earlier about the risk associated with Bildwar caves.
Singh Deo said that the incident was not an isolated one in which a blast in a mine takes place and a part of the cave collapses from the impact. ‘On October 23, 2012, a part of the same Bildwar cave had collapsed as was reported in a local newspaper on November 3, 2012,’ he said , adding, 'the SDM in the region was informed by the locals following the incident.'
He said that the State Government was also informed through the panchayats in the region and the SDM who visited the site had also held discussions with the officials whether to stop the visit of the people to the cave. “Nothing thereafter happened over the issue,” the leader of Opposition said.“A minor fracture in the cave’s wall could have brought it down. A visit was made by me and the Home Minister to the families of those who died in Tuesday’s incident and the Chief Minister also announced compensation for the family members,” Singh Deo said.
He said that two children had drowned earlier in Mahanadi river which is a tourist spot in Saharhora region. The leader of Opposition said that if there was some lapse committed in the Bildwar cave incident, there should be discussions on how future mishaps could be averted. “We have no intention to politicise the issue. The incident is very unfortunate,” Singh Deo said.
Chief Minister Raman Singh said that the Bildwar cave incident had been taken seriously by the Government and “we are ready to discuss the issue in the House,” he said. To this, Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal said that a discussion would be held on the issue.