Catch illegal miners named in government report in 2019: Assam rights group

Tragic coal mine accident in Assam prompts crackdown on illegal mining operations, activists demand action from government.

GUWAHATI

More than a fortnight after nine miners were trapped in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in central Assam’s Dima Hasao district bordering Meghalaya, the focus has shifted to similar illegal operations in the eastern part of the State, along the border with Arunachal Pradesh.

Rescue workers retrieved the bodies of four miners, one of them from Nepal, from the 90-metre mine in Dima Hasao’s Umrangso area.

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Environment and rights activists based in the Tinsukia districts said they had been trying for more than a decade to draw the attention of the State government to “rampant illegal rat-hole” coal mining in the Ledo-Margherita region. They said the illegal activities would have been swept under the carpet had the Dima Hasao mine mishap not occurred.

“In March 2019, Assam’s Geology and Mining Department wrote to Tinsukia’s Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police seeking action against 19 people accused of illegal operations and coal theft,” L. Ratan Singh, general secretary of the district unit of the International Human Rights Council, said.

He said his organisation had set a deadline for the authorities to “strike while the iron is hot” and catch the 19 illegal operators moving about freely.